Undercover at Metropolis University
by sanalayla
Summary: I wrote it back in season 5, but this specific story is set a few years after then. Around 2010 onwards. Wonder Woman comes to Smallville... a series of events leads Clark to realize his destiny. Roma Clois. Features Lana, Chloe, and other DC characters
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** This story is **complete**. I'm posting it here for archive reasons and because I feel like there aren't enough very long Clois fics here.

I wrote it back in season 5, but this specific story is set a few years after then. (Around 2010 onwards.) So, it's basically AU at this point. (Some things may mesh with the current SV continuity, but it's not because I tried. It would just be a coincidence.)

This fic has some Justice League and a lot of Chloe. Lana is also in the fic and she's a good friend of Clark and Lois's. Basically, Lois never dated Oliver. Lana and Lex never got married and had a fake baby crisis. Lana & Clark never dated post-secret. And Chloe didn't date Jimmy Olsen & she's not a meteor freak. Clark, Lois, Lana and Chloe are, at this point, in college at Metropolis University. This fic has also been posted at another site under the name "Wonder Woman Meets Clark Kent".

Disclaimer: Don't own any of it ... anything at all for that matter. I'm broke, so please don't sue me.

* * *

**Chapter One: **

_A small town in Kansas... _

The dark-haired woman knelt down beside the body near the ditch. Taking care not the disturb anything; she picked up the wallet near the victim's lifeless hand. She opened it and saw the driver's license. Her mouth turned down in a frown of dismay and grief. Maddie Williams – she had been twenty-one years old. Only four years younger than she herself was. The poor girl had her whole life in front of her and it had been snatched away by a madman. A madman she was determined to bring to justice.

"Well, Agent Prince? Are you all done with your stuff, yet?" The local sheriff's gruff voice broke into her thoughts. She looked up at short, rotund man bursting out of his brown uniform. She stood and, pulling herself to her full height, looked down at him with frustrated blue eyes.

"Sheriff Wilkins. I thought we asked you and your team to let us handle this. From this point on, this is a federal investigation." The authority was clear in her voice and she waved her hand in dismissal.

Sherriff Wilkins looked up at the beautiful, cold FBI agent and swallowed nervously. He didn't know what to do. Things like this never happened in Cherry Hills, Kansas. This was the first murder they had seen in twenty years and, hopefully, it would be the last. "Ah, yes, Agent Prince. It's just that – well…" he gulped as the full force of her gaze narrowed in on his flushed face. He began sweating even more profusely. "It's just that the mayor has asked me to speed up the process. For the family - they want to bury her, you see."

Agent Prince's gaze softened a bit and she stepped back from the small man, giving him more breathing space. "I understand, Sheriff Wilkins. And believe me when I say that it is not my intention – or the FBI's for that matter – to make this harder on the family." She paused and looked down at the nude body lying on the dirt, posed in an awkward angle. "But, we have to let my team finish their investigation. Not only for Maddie's sake, but also for the sake of the other three victims this man has killed before her."

Christine Gardiner, her partner, strode up to the pair and interrupted the conversation, "Diana, get a load of this." She held up a card in her gloved hand and Diane grabbed it from her to inspect it more closely.

"It's a Met U. card," Diane said slowly, feeling her heart beat faster with excitement as she gazed down at the student ID.

"Yup," Chris nodded with satisfaction. "It's him, Diana. It's gotta be. She's the fourth one from that school."

Glancing at the sheriff, who was listening to this whole conversation with a very interested, alert expression on his face, Diana cleared her throat and signaled to her partner to stop talking. Chris followed Diana's gaze and nodded slightly to acknowledge that she got the message.

She waited until they were in their car, heading back to the motel to finish the thought.

"So, you agree?" Chris finally said, when she felt they had gotten far enough away from the Cherry Hills police department to talk freely.

"Yes," Diane nodded. "I was thinking the same thing, even before you found the ID. It has to be him. He picks a girl from a small Kansas town that's going to Met U. Kills her and then dumps her body back in her hometown." She flipped open the notes in the binder on her lap and went through the pages. It wasn't needed – Diana had memorized the information in them long ago. But, she liked the feel of the pages and looking at the faces of the victims reminded her why she was doing all this.

"It's very odd. So many questions," Diana murmured, as she perused her notes. "Why does he kill them in Metropolis and then bring back to their hometown? Why not just leave them there? What's with the small town thing? Why does he only pick people from Kansas? I wish I could tell what he was thinking."

Christine burst out laughing and Diana raised a perfectly arched brow. "What's so funny?"

"I don't know…it's just funny when you say stuff like that." Christine gazed at her partner out of the corner her eye briefly and then turned her attention on the dirt road. "I mean, with all your powers and stuff, I find it funny when you – Ms. Wonder Woman – get all helpless."

Diana shot Chris an angry look. "You won't think it's funny when we find another girl in a ditch, Chris."

Immediately, Christine sobered up and said in a defensive and slightly hurt voice, "Jesus, that's not what I meant, Diana. I was not, in any way, trying to minimize the tragedy here, okay? I was just saying that it's odd to watch you do things the old fashioned way – detective work, instead of just doing your thing and getting the guy. Gotta say," her usual disarming grin crept back up, "it's nice to see you be human once in awhile – like the rest of us mere mortals."

Diana looked at Chris, the retort dying at her lips as the wheels began turning in her mind. "That's it, Chris! That's why I can't find this guy. I'm not thinking like him – not thinking like a mere mortal."

"Uh, what does that mean?" Christine looked at Diana with curiosity in her hazel eyes.

"That means that we're going to Met U." Diana said with a decisive nod of her head. "I don't know why I didn't think of this before. I shouldn't go to him. He should come to me. I'm going to be his next victim."

Christine's jaw dropped in surprise. "You wanna go undercover? At Metropolis University? Pretending to be college student?" Christine burst out laughing again, ignored the glare her partner was shooting her way. "That's hilarious. And won't work – this guy goes for small town chicks born and bred in Kansas. You're an Amazonian princess, sweetie. He won't go for you."

Diana nodded. "Yes, that's true - however…." She raised a brow archly and smiled a mischievous smile. "Since I've effectively convinced the US Government that I was born in New York, then I don't think getting past the Met U. admissions office is going to be that difficult."

"One of these days, you have to tell me how you did that." Christine sighed. "Okay, fine, I'll help you go undercover as a coed." She scowled at the beautiful woman sitting next to her. "God knows you're gonna need my help. I mean, just look at you."

Diana glanced down at the black tailored suit she was wearing. "Why, what's wrong with me?"

Christine snorted. "You don't look anything like a college student. You look like the president of a bank, for God's sake. Or a teacher."

"That's because I spend most of my time wearing blue underwear and a halter top," Diana reminded her friend with flushed cheeks. "It makes it easier to separate the two identities."

Christine slid a sardonic glance at her friend. "Well, it's time for the two identities to meet each other. At least a little. We gotta get you to look hot if you want this guy to seek you out." She smiled as she pulled into the parking lot of mall, giving Diana look full of glee. "And that means…. we get to go shopping."

Diana groaned.

_Two days later in a small apartment near Metropolis University… _

"Hell, no! It's way too dangerous," Clark stood against the wall, his arms crossed stubbornly at his chest. He glanced from Chloe to Lana and wondered how he got himself into these situations.

"It is not – not for us, anyway." Chloe shot back, looking towards Lana for support.

"Lana, tell her she's out of her mind." Clark looked at Lana pointedly, obviously waiting for her to speak up and tell Chloe she was insane.

Lana cleared her throat and avoided Clark's gaze. "Actually, I agree with Chloe."

"What?"

"Clark, try to understand," she finally looked up at him with pleading eyes. Clark was staring at her with shock. "Maddie was a good friend of mine. A really good friend. I have to help find out what happened to her. I can't just let it slide, when I know we can help. What's the point of you having powers if we can't help people we care about?"

Clark let out a sigh and ran his fingers through his black hair in frustration. He gazed down at his petite friend with a concerned and tender look on his face. Even though he and Lana had stopped dating long ago, he still considered a very close friend and would do anything for her. Well, anything that didn't involve getting her and Chloe killed, of course.

Chloe sensed that Clark was beginning to weaken. Typical – she spoke reason and he argued. Lana looked at him with big, brown puppy eyes and he melted. She sighed – there was nothing she could do about it. Except, maybe, use it to her advantage. Chloe made a mental note to use Lana to convince Clark to do things more often.

"Look," Chloe said briskly, "I've got it figured out. Maddie told Lana that the guy she was seeing was part of this special fraternity. This fraternity apparently meets in the basement of this private club – you need a password to get into their parties. The only people allowed in are the members of the fraternity and the girls they invite."

"That's the last time I saw Maddie," Lana interrupted. "She was getting ready for the party."

"So, do you know where it is? And who's in this fraternity?" Clark asked, with a raised brow, finally letting his curiosity get the better of him.

"No," Lana admitted sadly. "Here's the thing – Maddie had a big mouth when it came to this stuff. She wasn't even supposed to tell me that much. But she was so excited she couldn't keep quiet about it. We're lucky we have even that much info."

Clark stretched himself out on Lana's bed and hooked his hands behind his head. Staring at the ceiling for second, he contemplated what they were suggesting and frowned. "I don't know. Even with me backing you guys up, it's still too dangerous. We should just let the police do their job."

"What's too dangerous and who's stopping the police from doing their job?" Lois breezed into the room and tossed her backpack on Chloe's bed. She looked at her friends with curiosity and opened the mini-fridge to grab a soda.

Clark flushed and sat up. He felt the odd lurch in his stomach that always when Lois entered the room. He kept a tight rein on himself and made sure his face didn't betray his emotions. He'd already been though that once with Lana. Clark had learned long ago that it was best not to wear your heart on your sleeve when you had feelings for someone. And, unfortunately, it appeared that he was beginning to have feelings for Lois Lane. Very deep feelings.

He wasn't going to make the same mistakes with Lois that he'd made with Lana. Actually, at this rate, he wasn't going to be making any mistakes with Lois at all, since she never looked at him as anything but a friend. And, he had not intention of forcing her to see him otherwise. He also had no intention of letting another person know his secret, and that made it even more impossible for him to pursue her. Not that he hadn't thought about it -- in fact, he thought about it a lot.

"Nothing, Lois," he finally answered. "We were just talking about an article Chloe's working on."

Chloe and Lana gave Clark an odd look. He pretended not to notice it, but Lois did.

"What article? I didn't see Perry give you an assignment." Lois took a sip of the soda and her eyes narrowed as she contemplated them suspiciously. "Are you guys hiding something from me? Smallville, spill it." She glared at Clark and he looked away.

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Clark, there is no way we can hide this from Lois Lane. If there is anyone more nosy than me, it's my cousin." She turned her attention to Lois, "we're coming up with a plan, Lo, to find who killed Maddie and the other girls."

Lois considered that announcement for a moment. She cast a look at Lana, "ah, you're in on this, too?"

Lana flushed. "Of course I am. It was my idea, actually. Maddie was a good friend of mine."

"Oh, I see. I'm sorry." Lois nodded thoughtfully and took a sip of the drink. A moment later she declared, "okay, well, count me in, girls." She nodded to include Clark in the term. He scowled back at her.

Lana smiled a bit at the familiar exchange. "Thanks, Lois. We were pretty sure we could count on you. We already know what you're going to do." She started outlining their plan to Lois.

Clark picked up Chloe's journalism text-book and focused on the blue cover while Lana and Lois talked things through. He was finding it very hard not to stare at Lois and that wasn't something he wanted to do with Chloe in the room. That girl was way too observant.

"….and that's all you have to do." Lana finished summarizing the plan.

"Hhhmm," Lois sat down and her mind worked through everything Lana had said. She shook her head decisively. "It's not going to work."

"Why not?" Chloe asked.

"Because there is no way that Smallville here can get into a secret fraternity." Lois pointed out, her hands indicating towards a plaid and jeans wearing Clark.

Clark's head shot up in surprise and he raised his brow. "What does that mean?" He prepared himself for an insult. He wasn't disappointed.

She smirked. "For one thing, you need to be a massive hottie to get into one and for another, it would require Smallville to lie." Lois cast a meaningful look at Lana and Chloe. "We all know he sucks at that."

Clark rolled his eyes but kept quiet.

Lana and Chloe exchanged a glance. They were both aware that Clark was a lot better at lying than most people believed at first glance. And as far as the hotness factor was concerned…. Well, they had a secret weapon for that. All they needed was for Lois to leave so they could convince Clark about it in private. Lois definitely did not need to know that part of the plan.

"You leave that to us, Lois," Chloe said, ignoring the questioning look Clark threw her way. "We'll figure out a way to make him so hot that those guys will be begging him to join."

Clark looked wounded as Lois laughed. "Excuse me, I'm sitting right here. I can always leave and let you guys do this alone, you know."

"No, don't go, Clark," Lana said quickly. "Sorry."

She shot Chloe and Lois a quelling look as the two tried to stifle their giggles at Clark's hurt expression.

Chloe got herself under control first. "Look, Lois, could you just go take care of your end? We'll work on turning Clark into a hottie in the mean time, okay?" Chloe shooed her cousin out the door, while Lois protested on not getting to be in on the Smallville makeover.

When Lois had finally left, Chloe shut the door tightly and closed all the windows. Lana reached under Chloe's bed and dug out a shoe box. Clark watched all of this with an uneasy expression on his face. He x-rayed the box in Lana's hands and saw that it was filled with papers and various things from Smallville High. He also saw that a smaller box was inside the shoe box. He zeroed in on the smaller box and focused his vision on what was inside. Clark winced when he realized what it was. It was one of their class rings. He stopped x-raying and looked at his two friends.

"Are you guys crazy? That's your plan?"


	2. Chapter 2

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea!" Lana yelled, trying to be heard over the pounding beat of the music at the club.

Chloe shook her head and grabbed Lana's hand, moving them to a quieter corner. She stopped and took an anxious sip of her drink. Chloe stared at the tall man across the room, talking to a petite, blonde girl. Devastatingly handsome in his tight black t-shirt and dark blue jeans, he was easily the best looking man in the club. Something that hadn't escaped anybody's notice – every once in awhile a girl would brush up against him and he'd look down to give them a wicked grin or wink. He didn't even glance in either Lana or Chloe's direction.

"God, it's been like this for the past two nights. How the hell are we going to get him to focus? He's supposed to be helping with this investigation – not causing more problems." Chloe groaned.

"Why didn't you tell me that Clark is impossible to control when he's on Red-K?" Lana glared at her friend accusingly and then directed the hostility towards Clark. He was oblivious as he went onto the dance floor with two girls in tow.

"Nothing's going to happen, you said." Lana reminded Chloe. "He's been on it before with no problems, you said. He can take the ring off at any time… is this sounding familiar to you? Does that," Lana gestured towards Clark, "look like a guy who's about to take off the ring? Or listen to anything we say? He's been avoiding us ever since he put that thing on. At this rate, we're never going to figure out what happened to Maddie."

"Forget Maddie, Lana." Chloe contemplated Clark's behavior with a worried frown. "At this rate, we're not going to be able to get Clark to take the ring off. He's having too much fun." Chloe paused and looked at Lana with a guilty expression. "You're right – this was a bad plan. He could hurt someone. We need to focus on getting him to become Clark again." 

"Well, let's break out the kryptonite, then. That's the plan, right? If he gets uncontrollable, I use the green stuff and you grab the ring." Lana hand tightened on her glass and she took a deep gulp of the frothy pink drink. Even though she was wearing a tank top, it was still hot in the jam packed room.

"The thing is, Lana, he's a lot more powerful than that. I don't know if it'll work. I'd forgotten how incredibly," Chloe paused, searching for the right word, and then continued, "stubborn and… well… MEAN he can be. The normal Clark is nothing like that, so I just didn't realize that…" her voice trailed off.

"That this wasn't going to be so simple?" Lana finished for her. 

Chloe nodded, feeling miserable and guilty. This is what happened when she chased a story – common sense apparently went out the window.

Sensing her friend's guilt, Lana relented. She threw her arm around Chloe and gave her a quick hug. "It's okay, Chlo. We'll figure something out. We always do."

"Yeah, of course, we do." Chloe didn't look convinced, but gave Lana a watery smile, anyway. "I guess. If we survived the weirdness of Smallville for decades, then we should be able to figure this out." 

"Look," Lana said with a determined expression on her face, "we just have to get a hold of him and pull out the green rock. We need to get him alone." She looked across the room to the corner where Clark was holding court on the dance floor, surrounded by a bevy of sexy women. Lana's dainty nose wrinkled in distaste. "It might be hard to get him away from his fan club. But, we have to try."

Chloe shook her head and groaned in frustration. "We've tried that, Lana. He knows what we're up to—he's never going to be caught alone with us. That's why he's been avoiding us."

"Oh, really? Because I thought it was the fact that we're 'buzz-kill' and 'prudes'?" Lana repeated Clark's words with amusement.

"Well, that, too." Chloe laughed. "C'mon, let's try to find Lois and see if she can corner him. Maybe she can get him alone and we can work with that." She made a face. "Lois doesn't know about his 'allergies' so he probably won't run from her."

Clark watched Chloe and Lana move away from the bar, and breathed a small sigh of relief. Maybe they were finally giving up. The two had been on his case to stop and think about the investigation. As if he had time to waste with a bunch of stupid jocks and their secret club. He was having too much fun flying solo.

He grinned at the thought. Why couldn't the two of them understand that? While there was a part of him that knew that it was all because of the ring – the majority of him didn't give a damn. He was ready to loosen up – the normal Clark Kent was way too uptight. He always put other people first – it was time to think about himself for a change.

The song ended and he glanced down at the vapid blonde clinging to his arm… she was stroking his chest with one hand and looking at Clark with a blatant invitation in her eyes. For some reason, it annoyed him. He felt strange and wanted a challenge. Not some piece of meat that was ready to jump him in public. Clark smirked – he had more class than that. 

"Hey, Smallville! Wanna dance?" A voice broke into his thoughts. His heart started beating faster and he unceremoniously pushed the blonde girl away. He turned slowly and looked down at Lois Lane. Her hazel eyes were sparkling with amusement and her beautiful lips were smiling.

"I don't know, sweetheart. Are you talking to me?" Clark flashed her a wicked smile as he checked her out. He didn't even try to hide the desire in his eyes as he let his gaze wander down her body. A nice body – decked out in a white sparkly shirt and a short black skirt. Her long legs were perfect – he noticed that she was wearing strappy, black high heels and her nails were painted a deep red. For some reason, that fascinated him.

"Of course I'm talking to you!" Lois said in an exasperated tone. His eyes jerked up and he saw that her face was flushed and she looked slightly flustered. Of course, being Lois Lane, she quickly recovered herself and made a show of looking around the crowded club. "Do we see any other Smallvilles around here? I do believe you're the only one."

Clark's arm snaked around her slim waist and he pulled her flush against his body, before she even had time to let out a sound of protest.

"You know, Lois, I don't really think there's anything 'small' about me," he said smoothly, while his free hand played with the ends of her long hair. His voice was soft and silky like velvet. "Wouldn't you agree? Maybe it's time we find a new nickname?" He looked down at her with amusement as she futilely tried to get out of his grasp, liking the feel of her body moving against him.

Lois stopped struggling once she realized that Clark's arm was like steel. No matter how much she moved, it made no difference – his arm didn't budge. And, furthermore, he wasn't breaking a sweat. She looked up at him and her eyes narrowed. Far from looking like this was requiring any effort, he looked amused – and faintly bored. Lois felt a surge of anger at the cavalier way in which he was treating her.

Clark was acting like a first class jerk and while she could deal with jerks – after all, she did all the time – for some reason it was really pissing her off that Clark Kent was acting like one. For God's sake, it went against the laws of nature. The sun rose in the morning, Lois Lane kicked butt and Clark Kent was nice – that's the just the way it was.

Lois glanced up and met Clark's amused gaze. His beautiful blue-green eyes were staring at her so intently she felt hot. She swallowed and stared up at him for a full moment before she realized what she was doing. She made a face and frowned at him.

"Maybe we should stick to the other one, then," Lois finally suggested, through gritted teeth. "Farm boy….Or maybe I should start calling you Plaidman or something."

Clark almost laughed. He had to hand it to her. Most girls would have freaked out by now. Not Lois – she had to continue baiting him. He loosened his hold and she instinctively moved a few steps back. This time he didn't hold it back – he let out a mocking laugh.

Lois flushed at the sound of his laugh. "Listen, Sma—I mean, Clark. You're obviously taking this whole 'undercover' thing way too seriously. You do realize that since I know you, you can drop the act – I already know you're a dork."

Clark lifted a brow, not bothered by her insults. "Really? Hhmm, that's interesting. Did you ever consider, Lois," Clark moved forward and closed the distance between them, "that this may be the real Clark? That the other one is the act?" He knew she was nervous – a mere mortal wouldn't have known, but he could her heart beating faster. She was hiding it well.

"No, I didn't consider that," Lois looked really annoyed now. He stopped smiling. "I know this isn't you. I've lived with you, remember? I've known you for awhile. This…" she gestured towards his clothes, "is not you. I'm not sure what Chloe and Lana did to you, but we're going to fix it." Lois grabbed a hold of his arm. "C'mon, let's go outside to talk."

Clark shook her hand off and he looked past her, avoiding her earnest gaze. His eyes landed on a gorgeous woman leaning back against the bar. She was undoubtedly the most beautiful woman in the room.

Distracted, he replied casually, "Nice try, Lois. See you around – I see someone more… fun."

He moved past a sputtering Lois and didn't hear her yell, "Hey, don't walk away from me. Clark Joseph Kent, I was talking to you!" 

His eyes were on the black-haired woman across the room. He saw that she was watching him closely but she didn't make a move to get closer to him. She waited for him to walk to her. As he got closer, he slowed down, taking in her outfit. She was wearing a red halter top, with a short dark blue skirt. Her legs were miles long and were encased in knee-high red boots. She wore heavy silver bracelets on her wrists.

When he was right in front of her, he noticed that her lips were a deep red and her eyes were like dark sapphires, fringed with long, black eyelashes. He had been wrong – she wasn't just the most beautiful woman in the room. She was the most beautiful woman he'd ever met. She didn't bother to move as he stepped closer to her. Looking faintly bored, she shot him a quizzical look.

"So, you've been waiting for me, huh?" Clark asked, fascinated by the beauty.

"Waiting for you? I don't even know you." Her voice was husky, soft, and more than a little arrogant.

He leaned in closer to her, expecting her to pull back. Instead, she straightened and brought herself to her full height. Clark's eyes widened in surprise when he saw that she was at his eye level. They were the same height. Involuntarily, his eyes went down to her shoes and he saw that she was wearing heels. So, she was a bit shorter than him – but that still made her the tallest woman he'd ever met. She was at least six feet.

Clark found that he was a bit unsettled by that. Unbidden, an image of Lois floated through his mind. Now, Lois was the perfect height – not too short, like Lana. Or too tall like this woman.

He frowned – why was he thinking of Lois Lane when this beautiful creature was in front of him? He banished thoughts of the annoying brunette from his mind and focused on the mysterious woman.

"Well, let's take care of that, shall we? I'm Kal… and you are the most beautiful woman in this place. But, what's your name?" Clark gave her a wicked grin.

"I'm Diana," she replied, but didn't return his smile. She looked at him curiously. "Are you always this… well… subtle… Kal?"

He let out a laugh. "Not always, no. Something's gotten into me tonight, I guess." He glanced down at the ring on his right hand. "Maybe we can explore my… subtleties… somewhere private?"

She bit her lip. For a second, it seemed to Clark like she was trying hard not to laugh. He paused – that didn't make sense. Before he could ask, she responded, with a serious look, "Ah… that seems fine. Why don't we go back to your place?" She slid her arm around his waist and tugged at him lightly. He didn't move and continued to examine her with a frown on his face. Something didn't seem right. 

Startled, Diana stared at the young man next to her. She'd tugged at him – and he hadn't moved. Tentatively, she tugged a bit harder. Again, he was hard as rock. She pulled at him with a bit more strength, and he didn't budge. She frowned - if she had pulled at any normal human with that level of pressure, they would have gone flying. Diana considered forcing him to move, but decided she didn't want to push it. It wasn't the time or the place.

Diana let her arm slide away from him and took a step back. She looked into his eyes warily, all of her senses on high alert. She didn't make a move to touch him - she didn't want to provoke him without knowing his full strength. And, she couldn't fight him in such a public place, anyway. Innocent people might get hurt.

"Why do you look so surprised?" Clark asked her suspiciously.

Diana quickly plastered the "bimbo girl" smile on her face that Christine had forced her to practice in front of the mirror. "I'm just surprised that you're taking so long to leave." She placed her hand on his muscular arm and batted her eyelashes, all while cringing inside.

"Let's go to your place, Kal. Show me your… subtleties." She breathed the last word in a hushed whisper, hoping she sounded like a flirty college girl.

It was all lost on him. Clark had stopped looking at her and was instead focused on the side of the room. She followed his gaze and saw that he was watching three young women in the corner. They were talking to each other and gesturing towards Clark with worried expressions on their faces.

He looked back at her with a grim expression. "Sure, let's go." Before Diana could even blink, he grabbed her hand and pulled her through the crush of people towards the exit.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three:**

"Okay, what'd you do to him?" Lois said. She'd finally been able to get Chloe and Lana to stay still for a moment to interrogate them on Clark's attitude.

The two friends avoided Lois's gaze, looking everywhere but at the taller woman glaring at them.

"We didn't do anything, Lo…. He's just acting. Doing his part for the investigation." Chloe finally said.

Lois shook her head. "There is no way you didn't give him something. Smallville is not that good of an actor. He hit on me, Chloe. Me!! Do you honestly think Clark would have done that if he was in his right mind?"

"Um, seriously? Well, I don't know…." Chloe smiled a bit.

Lana, who'd been looking for Clark throughout this exchange, suddenly grabbed a hold of Chloe's arm. With her other hand she gestured towards the side of the room. "There he is, Chloe. Talking to that girl. We have to get him away from her and out of here. NOW."

Lois turned just in time to see Clark leaning in closer to a tall, dark-haired woman. The two of them formed a very striking picture. Lois scowled and tried to stop the jealousy that flared up in her at the sight. 

"Whoa," Chloe exclaimed, "Who's that? She makes Angelina Jolie look like the _ugly_ stepsister."

Lana nodded in agreement.

"Not really," Lois scoffed. "She's way too tall… almost masculine, if you think about it. And what's with all the silver jewelry? One woman does not need to wear that many bracelets. And the boots? Please."

Chloe and Lana exchanged a knowing look and grinned. Lois and Clark's not-so-secret crush on each other was a huge source amusement for everyone who knew them.

Lana cleared her throat. "Yeah, sure, Lois - she's not good looking at all." She gave Lois a sympathetic smile. Lana understood where Lois was coming from. If she had caught her boyfriend talking to that woman, Lana would have been jealous, too.

Lois didn't respond and just kept staring at Clark. Suddenly, Clark turned towards them and looked right at Lois. She held his gaze until he turned away abruptly, and she saw him say something to the woman, grab her hand and head towards the door. The woman looked surprised, but seemed to have no problem keeping up with him.

"Looks like your prey is getting away, girls." Lois said dryly

"Let's go, Lana." Chloe pushed her way to door, but had some problems getting through the group of people blocking the exit.  
Lana and Lois hurried to catch up. They finally made their way out into the cool night and looked around. Clark was nowhere to be seen.

Chloe let out a frustrated groan. "Great. We've lost him. And he's with some girl. There is no telling what's going to happen. We have to find him."

"What? How are we going to do that? He could be anywhere. Like…literally…anywhere." Lana reminded Chloe.

Lois looked confused and frowned. "Well, it shouldn't be too hard. He can't have gone far. We were just a few minutes behind him."

Chloe and Lana didn't bother to answer. They couldn't very well tell her that in Clark terms "not very far" could mean anywhere from downtown Metropolis to the Himalayas.

Lois considered it for a moment. "I know where he went."

"Really?" Chloe raised her brow.

"Think about it. Whatever you guys did to him – and I know you guys did something to him, so don't bother denying it - has turned him into a weird, horny rat, right? Essentially, the epitome of a normal college guy."  
Lois took in their blank expressions and explained patiently, "So, it's obvious. He's going to do what any normal college guy would do – he's going to take her back to his place."

"I don't know…" Lana paused, trying to imagine Clark taking the woman back to his tiny apartment in downtown Metropolis.

"I think she's right, Lana." Chloe turned to Lois. "Okay, Lo, here's what's going to happen. You are going to go back in there so you don't get fired. We need you to keep that job, remember? All part of the plan? Lana and I will go Clark's apartment."

"Wait, I thought we're putting the 'Maddie plan' on hold? Shouldn't we get Clark normal first? I'll come with you." Lois replied.

"No!" Chloe almost yelled. She calmed down a bit and tried to explain. "No…no…we're definitely not giving up on the Maddie thing. This is just a little detour."

"Yeah, Lois." Lana pushed Lois back towards the entrance. "Chloe and I will focus on Clark and you focus on getting invited to work the party."

"OK." Lois looked unconvinced, but allowed herself to be ushered back into the club. 

Chloe and Lana breathed a sigh of relief once she was out of sight.

"I think we may need to get Victor in on this, Lana."

Lana eyes widened in alarm. "No way, Chloe! He's going to be so mad if he finds out we put Clark on Red K. He made me swear I wouldn't pursue the Maddie thing. We can't tell him." 

"But he's the only one we know who's strong enough to go up against Red K Clark." Chloe pointed out.

Lana sighed. "I don't know about that, Chloe. Victor's just really strong and fast. But Clark's got heat vision and stuff. They've never fought each other, but there's a huge chance that Clark would end up killing him. I'm not getting him involved in this. We just have to figure it out ourselves." Lana rolled her eyes. "Besides, I'm sick of being the girl that has her boyfriend constantly saving her. I should be able to some things without his help."

"Lana, no offense, but this not the time to be developing pride. I mean, if Clark can hurt a guy that's part machine then I don't even want to think about what he's going to do to us."

"Look, let's just find him and try to reason with him. Use kryptonite… whatever. If it turns out we can't handle it, I promise I'll pick up my cell and call Victor, okay?"

It was Chloe's turn to sigh and roll her eyes. "Okay, but let's just hope your fingers are still functional by that point."

"Hey, slow down, Flash. What's your hurry?" Diana quickened her pace to keep up with Clark's longer legs. They'd made it down two blocks in less than thirty seconds. They were in a deserted alley in a seedy part of town. What was he running from?

Clark stopped so abruptly that Diana almost crashed into him. He turned around and said, "What did you just say?"

"What's your hurry?" Diana repeated, confused by the expression on his face.

"No," he said slowly. He was still holding on to her left hand, and he tightened the grip just a bit. "Before that. Did you just call me Flash?"

Diana looked perplexed. "Ah, yeah, I guess I did." She tried to pull away from him, but he held her hand too tightly. She eyed him curiously. "Why? What difference does it make?"

"I'm not him."

"Well, of course you're not him. He's much shorter than you." Diana cocked her head to the side and studied the scowl on Clark's face. "It's just an expression, Kal. What - do people not use it in Metropolis?" 

Clark ran his hand through hair in agitation. There was something about this woman that really bothered him. Of course, people used that expression a lot – even in Metropolis. Bart was based out of Central City, but he was still pretty famous outside of his hometown. Still, he felt like she meant something by that. Like she knew who he was – and the reference was not innocent at all. 

"Well, I don't like it – don't compare me to that clown."

"That clown?" Diana frowned. "He's a hero. He puts his life on the line and saves people every day. And you're calling him a clown?"

Clark shrugged and pretended to think for a moment. "Well, let's see, sweetheart. A clown wears a costume and runs around… and people clap. The Flash wears a red body suit and runs around…and people clap." Clark smirked, "I rest my case: he's a clown. Maybe a fast one, but a clown, none the less."

"He doesn't put on a show for people," Diana shot back. "He saves people's lives. He's a hero. What, you don't believe in people being selfless and doing things for the greater good?"

"Let's just say that I believe in doing things for Clark's greater good."

"Hhhmm," Diana considered him for a moment. "So you're saying that if you had the Flash's abilities, you wouldn't use them to help people? What would you do - ignore them?"

Clark started laughing. Little did she know…. Bart had actually been a thief back when they'd first met. Unfortunately, Bart had gotten all boring and good in the past year when he'd decided to become the Flash. Now all he could talk about was saving the world and making it a better place.

Clark cringed to think about the goody-goody two shoes he, himself, always was. Clark sighed… if only Clark could convince Bart that his old life was better. Probably not – Bart would be all responsible and try to take the ring away from him. So he'd probably just end up killing one of the few guy friends he actually had left.

Clark just didn't want to deal with the aggravation. Maybe he would go talk to Lex. Lex always had fun projects that involved lots of money. His eyes lit up at the thought of moving into Lex's mansion.

"Well?" Diana's eyes challenged him. "What would you do?"

"Well, sweetheart," Clark grinned, "I'd -- "

Suddenly, Clark felt a shooting pain behind his eyes and his head started pounding. "Aaaahhh!" Clark started to fall to the ground, unable to stand the intensity of it.

Instinctively, Diana grabbed a hold of him before he could hit the ground. She helped him sit down, kneeling beside him to support him. Clark grasped her arm with one hand, squeezing it tightly, and used the other massage his temple.

Diana waited until the pain had passed and his trembling had stopped before speaking. "What happened? What was that?"

Slowly, Clark opened his eyes and found himself looking into a pair of two very beautiful blue eyes – eyes that looked equal parts worried and suspicious.

"Nothing. I just suffer from migraines, that's all." The lie came easily. Clark wasn't about to tell her that it was a side effect of the Red K.

She didn't look like she believed him, but she helped him up. When they were finally standing again, and he had gotten full control of his breathing, he let her go. Just then, Clark realized that he'd been holding on to her pretty tightly. Diana's bones should been crushed. He looked at her bare arm and saw that there wasn't even a bruise.

Clark backed away from her a bit and his hands clenched at his side. It could mean only one of two things – either she was a meteor freak or she was Kryptonian. He was going to go with the latter, considering her height and bearing. It definitely fit with the odd vibes he'd been getting.

"Well, I'm glad you feel better." Diana said cautiously, noticing the shift in his stance and mood.

"You can drop the act," Clark replied coldly. "I know who you are and why you're here."


	4. Chapter 4

Diana took a step back and eyed Clark warily. What did he mean, he knew who she was?

Had he figured out she was Agent Prince, working undercover to solve a case? Or had he figured out she was Princess Diana a.k.a. Wonder Woman?

Considering his unusual level of strength, she was pretty sure he meant the Wonder Woman part. She decided to find out.

"Really? Care to enlighten me on who I'm supposed to be?" One perfect brow rose in question.

"Look, while the normal Clark Kent is a pretty stupid kid…let's just say… I'm not exactly normal right now. So, I know what's going on. Don't play games with me, sweetheart. You'll just end up dead." Clark's eyes were like chips of blue-green ice as he stared her down, his arms crossed at his chest.

"Well," Diana looked unimpressed. "I don't know – I'm pretty hard to kill. No one has succeeded, yet, anyway. What makes you think you'll be any different?"

Clark smirked a bit at that. "We both know why I'll be different. So, why are you here? Jor-El sent you, didn't he? When is that guy going to get off my case? Enough with the destiny crap."

"Destiny crap?" Diana repeated. She was suddenly confused. "What're you talking about? Who's Jor-El? Is he your boss?"

"My boss?" Clark's arms dropped to his side and he took a step closer to her. "He wishes he was my boss. He's under the delusion he's my boss." Clark let out a hollow, bitter laugh. "What he really is … is just a big pain the ass. And you can tell him I said so."

Diana stood her ground, allowing him to move closer to her, while she considered his words. This man, whoever he was, was obviously very unhappy. He was not a nice man - but something about his behavior struck her as odd. He could have tried to fight her by now, but instead kept talking and hadn't actually made a move to touch her.

Even at the club, she'd watched him charm various women all evening and he hadn't done anything cruel or used his strength to hurt anyone. In fact, he'd appeared to have been affected by the sight of the three young women talking about him in the corner – and had chosen to run away from them. Why did he do that? Who were they?

He was face to face with Diana now and she met his gaze head on. As she searched his eyes, Diana found something there that mystified her. There appeared to be something burning in them – like a red flame….

"So, what's it gonna be, sweetheart?" He smiled coldly. He reached out and stroked her cheek with one finger. "Are you going to go running back to daddy dearest and let him know he should leave me alone or do I need to convince you?"

Diana's whole body went still. The only thing that revealed her anger was the flash in her blue eyes. She grabbed his hand from her face and tightened her grip until he winced a bit. She smiled and said, "I forgot to mention, darling - I'm not your sweetheart."

Before he had a chance to respond, she twisted around with all her strength and, still holding onto his hand, threw him across the alley. Clark's body went flying and hit the brick wall, making it crumble a bit. He was stunned for two seconds, but immediately picked himself up. He brushed off his jeans slowly, not taking his eyes off of Diana the whole time. She wasn't even winded and looked at him intently.

He felt a surge of Red-K fueled adrenaline flow through his body. She barely had time to twist out of the way as he directed a blast of heat vision towards her. He saw her stare at the burn marks on the ground with stunned shock.

Clark started – Diana was standing upright, but floating a bit off the ground, her long, jet-black hair rippling in the breeze. Well, well…she could fly.

"This is going to be fun." he grinned, advancing towards her slowly.

_Meanwhile..._

"Chloe… wait… slow down!!" Lana gasped a bit as she reached to grab Chloe's arm.

Chloe came to an abrupt halt.

"Lana, hurry up. Weren't you a cheerleader in high school? You should be in better shape than me." Chloe huffed, directing an amused look at her friend.

Lana gave her a disgusted look as she grabbed a hold of her side, rubbing a bit where she could feel the stitch. She leaned against the street light on the corner, trying to catch her breath.

"I am in better shape than you. You're just taller – so your legs are longer."

Chloe looked skeptical. "Lana, I'm taller than you by one inch. That doesn't count."

"Yes, it does." Lana rolled her eyes. "Besides it doesn't matter – none of us are as fast as Clark, so there is no reason for us to race for the gold, okay? We'll get there when we get there." She paused and added nervously, "Besides, I'm not exactly looking forward to it."

"You're the one who suddenly decided to channel your inner Gloria Steinem. I told you it was a bad idea to go without Victor. " Chloe reminded her.

Lana made a face. "Look, just because I'm not looking forward to it doesn't mean I can't handle it, okay? I'm just saying we should slow down – it won't do us any good if we're too tired to deal with him when we get there. We're going to walk."

Chloe glanced around the intersection where they had stopped. "I don't know, Lana. This place is pretty creepy – we're not exactly in the best part of town. We should hurry."

Lana groaned. "I know – I told you we should take my car."

"It would have taken us longer to find parking than it'll take us to walk there." Chloe pointed out with an impatient sigh.

The two women continued to bicker in a good natured way as they set off (at a slower pace) towards Clark's apartment. Their conversation was cut short by a crashing sound coming from a half a block away.

"Oh my God, what was that?" Lana exclaimed in a frightened voice, grabbing Chloe's arm again.

"I don't know. Let's go check it out – it's coming from that alley." Chloe gestured down the street and took off at a dead run.

Lana raced to catch up and stopped right behind the blonde woman at the entrance of a side alley. Chloe was standing still, her mouth open in shock. Lana moved out of the shadows to stand next to Chloe and see what her friend was staring at. Her eyes widened and her own jaw dropped in surprise.

The sight before them was something Chloe and Lana would describe in awe for decades to come.

_Back at the club..._

Lois let out a frustrated groan and wondered for the umpteenth time how she let Chloe talk her into these things. Why did she always get stuck with the assignment that had her using her looks – Chloe owed her, big time. She'd been prancing around the club all night, trying to get the manager to notice her and ask her to the work the private party scheduled the next night.

Nothing had worked. Her feet were aching in the strappy shoes and she'd been hit on by at least ten guys – not including the doped up Clark. She was sick and tired of her part in the "plan".

"Okay, Lois. This is it… just do it and get out of here." She muttered to herself as she sauntered over to the manager who was yelling at one of the bartenders.

"Hey, Mac." Lois flashed a smile and leaned a bit over the bar, letting him get an eyeful of her cleavage in the tight white shirt.

"Uh, hey, Lois." Mac stopped yelling at James long enough to stare openly at her chest. "What do you want? You still got ten minutes to go on your shift."

"Mac, I want to work the private party tomorrow. I need the money." Lois figured that since being subtle was obviously not working, it was time to try the direct approach.

Mac considered her for a moment and checked out her body again. "Okay, sure. Be here tomorrow at 8:30 to pick up the uniform. Don't be late."

Lois's brows shot up into her bangs. That had been surprisingly easy. "Uh, really? That's great."

"Yeah, well, you're the type they're always looking for – eff'in hot, baby." Mac smirked and turned away from the counter. He didn't catch Lois's eye roll at his crude comment.

Satisfied that she'd got the job done, Lois straightened and glanced down at her watch. She could leave in a few minutes. Thank God – she was ready to go home, take a long bath and put this horrible day behind her.

For a second, her thoughts strayed to Clark and the conversation with Chloe and Lana. Maybe she should try to find them and help them out. As soon as the thought entered her mind, Lois squashed it. She'd had enough.

There was a time when Chloe had trusted her – like a sister. But, more and more, Lois had seen that Lana had replaced her as a confidante. Ever since Lana had started dating Victor Stone, Lana and Chloe were inseparable. At first, Lois thought it was because the two girls had finally gotten past the Clark/Lana thing. Since Lana was so incredibly happy with her new boyfriend – and Clark was so obviously happy for both of them – Lois figured that Chloe and Lana were making up for lost time in their friendship. No more Clark Kent to get between them.

But, there was something more. They were hiding something, she could tell. They'd be deep in conversation and they'd abruptly stop as soon as she walked into the room. Or Lana would make a comment and Chloe would get it on a level that Lois just didn't - and neither of them would explain it to her.

Their non-verbals were killing her. Sometimes when she hung out with Chloe, Lana and Clark, Lois felt like there was a huge joke going on that everyone was in on - except her. And, now, today – with the Clark thing. What was up with that? Sure, Smallville was a weirdo, but c'mon – there was something more there. And Chloe knew what it was and wouldn't tell her. That hurt – more than Lois cared to admit.

Lois pulled herself out of her melancholy thoughts and went to the coat room to grab her sweater and bag. She shrugged off her mood – if Chloe and Lana wanted to go handle Clark alone then they were welcome to him.

She grinned to herself as she walked out of the club and towards her apartment. Lois Lane was not one to throw herself a pity party. After all - Smallville did that enough for the both of them.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

Lana and Chloe gazed up at the sight before them, their hearts pounding furiously.

"Ah, Chloe?" Lana whispered. "I think Clark is flying."

Chloe nodded, not taking her eyes off the two figures hovering in the air before them.

"Yeah, and he's getting his butt kicked by a girl."

And, for once, Chloe wasn't exaggerating. She watched, amazed, as the woman from the bar kicked Clark and sent him flying across the alley. He flew backwards into a fence and it crumpled beneath the force of his body.

He picked himself immediately and launched himself at the woman, who easily side-stepped his blow, causing him to fly right past her. The woman let out a laugh.

This wasn't the first time Chloe had seen Clark fight a super-powered woman (the Angel of Vengeance being the other) but it was the first time she'd seen him fight someone in the air. It was spectacular.

Lana winced as the woman continued to pound on Clark – every jab and punch sending Clark flying. Every once in awhile, Clark would get in a good swipe of his own, but for the most part, the woman stayed on the defensive and just let him exhaust himself.

It was obvious that she wasn't even winded and Clark was getting careless in his anger. Even his heat vision wasn't helping him. The woman kept avoiding it – she was too fast and seemed to know what he was going to do before he did it.

"Chloe, we have to stop them." Lana said urgently, trying to snap Chloe out of her daze. "She could hurt him." 

Chloe tore her gaze away from the dueling figures.

"Um, just how to do you propose we do that, Lana? Did you suddenly become Ultrawoman and you didn't tell me? In case you hadn't noticed, those two" Chloe jerked her head in towards Clark and the woman, "have something we don't."

Lana gave her a look. "Of course not. I'm saying we should take out the meteor rock. That should stop them."

"No, it'll stop Clark. We don't know if it'll stop her. We could give it to her and it'll stop Clark and then she'll have full power to kill him. And then us." Chloe pointed out and shivered at the thought.

She looked back up when she heard a grunt of pain. Clark had just thrown the lid of a trash can at the woman like a Frisbee and the force of the impact had thrown the woman into a chimney – which shattered into rubble under her weight.

"She's obviously a meteor freak." Chloe said slowly, as she watched the woman get up without a scratch on her body. "I've seen this before."

Lana shook her head. "No, I don't think so. She reminds me of the people that came out of that space-ship when the second meteor shower hit. She must be the same as them – the same as Clark. You can tell by her height – oh and the whole flying thing."

Chloe's response was drowned out by a dull roar.

The two good friends watched as Clark and the woman flew around each other really fast, trying to get the other to slow down long enough to get punches and kicks in here and there. Once in a while, one would grab a hold of the other and get the upper hand in the fight. The upper hand never lasted long.

Lana and Chloe watched with open mouths as the woman grabbed Clark and effortlessly threw him over shoulder. When he came back to reciprocate, she was a blur of blue, red and gold as she avoided his attempts to knock her down.

"Chloe, we have to do something!"

Chloe wasn't listening. She felt something – a tingling sensation in her body. The feeling she always got when she put the final piece of the puzzle together in one of her stories. The feeling that happened when she knew she had the story of the century. Chloe saw the blue, red and gold blur in front of her and everything snapped into place.

She opened her bag and took out the small lead box (she and Lana always carried one with them – Mrs. Kent had actually advised them of that) and fumbled with the clasp.

Lana watched and smirked a bit. "Finally – you actually agree with me."

Chloe ignored her and took out the green rock. Even after all this time, it still amazed her that such a harmless looking rock could have such an impact on the strongest being on the planet. Holding it in her hand for an instant, she looked up at the sky and prayed she wasn't making a mistake. 

Clark was starting to get the advantage over the woman by using his heat vision and super-breath alternatively. It was obvious that the woman was getting tired. There was actually a burn mark on one of her arms.

"Hey!" Chloe yelled out. "Over here!" 

Both the figures stopped circling each other and looked down at the two girls standing at the entrance of the alleyway with surprise. Apparently, Clark hadn't been using his super-hearing. 

Lana gasped. "Chloe, what the hell are you doing?" 

"Catch!" Chloe threw the rock towards the very stunned woman. It began to glow a bit as it got closer to the people still hovering in mid-air. She reached out and caught the rock in mid-air effortlessly, as Clark backed away from it. He grimaced and shot himself high up in the air and flew away without a backwards glance. 

The woman looked up at the sky at his retreating form and then down at the rock – which had stopped glowing. She landed on the floor and began walking towards the two girls, anger and distrust clear in her gaze.

"Okaaayy… well… she's obviously not Kryptonian," Lana whispered under her breath.

"No, she's not." Chloe agreed, her eyes lighting up.

Lana's eyes widened as she looked up at the tall woman that had just stopped in front of them, her perfect, black brows slammed together in disapproval.

Her eyes glued to the woman before them, Chloe grinned and answered Lana. "She's Wonder Woman."  
"How did you – !" Diana exclaimed.

"Who's that?" Lana asked curiously.

Both women spoke at once – one looked surprised and the other confused.

Chloe laughed. She loved this part. The part where she knew what was going on and had to explain it to all the other, less informed, people.

"Cliff Notes version? Wonder Woman is a costumed super-hero that goes around helping people. She's based out of New York. She usually wears blue underwear with stars and red-gold halter top with red boots. And she's got a golden lasso. She's one of the good guys." Chloe explained to an incredibly lost Lana.

Then she turned to the taller woman. "You shouldn't have worn such an obvious get-up. I figured it out when you were flying around. I've seen news footage of you when you do your – well – your – thing and it became obvious because of the colors."

Chloe paused, thought for a second, and added, "oh and the whole flying and being stronger than Clark thing. That was kind of a give-away, too. But, really, I didn't put it together until the colors popped into my head. By the way, my name's Chloe and this is Lana." She indicated towards the mute girl standing next to her.

Diana's eyes narrowed as she considered the two petite girls in front of her. The blonde girl appeared to be telling the truth. And the black haired girl really did look genuinely confused by what was going on.

"Yes, well, I didn't pick this outfit." Diana admitted. "My partner did – obviously, it was a bad choice."

Diana looked down at the rock in her hand and then glanced at the two girls. "So, it looks like we need to discuss some things." She held out the rock. "Care to explain?"

Chloe shook her head. "There's no time – you need to go after Clark and find him before it's too late. God only knows how far he's gone by now. You need to leave now if you have any chance of finding him."

"We don't need to worry about that. I can track him down after we're done with our little chat."

Lana spoke for the first time. "No, you can't. Even if you can fly, he's miles ahead of you. And he's got super-hearing, so he'll always know when you're getting closer."

Diana's brows shot up in surprise. "He's got super-hearing? And he can shoot lasers out of his eyes, he's super strong and can fly. Who is this guy?"

"Cliff Notes version?" Lana mimicked Chloe with amusement clear in her voice. "He's from a planet called Krypton and he's also impervious to cold, heat and whole bunch of other things. And he can run super-fast, too. The only thing that can stop is a piece of that meteor rock – it's a part of his home planet."

Diana didn't think it was possible to be more surprised by recent events, but she was. "He's an alien? He can run super fast, too?"

"Faster than a speeding bullet!" Chloe quipped, with a grin.

"Really?" Diana took a moment to process all the information.

"Look, you don't have time. You need to go after him, please." Lana pleaded. "He's not himself right now and he could get into a lot of trouble. Or hurt someone. He's usually not like the way he was tonight. The real Clark would never have fought you like that."

"The real Clark?" Diana was even more confused. She needed answers – and these girls apparently had them.

"Don't worry – I'll find him." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a black device that looked a lot like a small mp3 player. "I put a tracking device on him when we were fighting. This will tell me his location no matter where he is – as long as he's on Earth."

Chloe looked at the device with amazement and immediately wanted to examine it. "Wow, where'd you get that?"

"I got it from…" Diana hesitated and put the device back in her pocket. "A friend."

"A friend, huh?" Chloe repeated with a smile. Right before Wonder Woman had pocketed the device, the moonlight had cast a light directly on it and she'd clearly seen a very familiar stamp – Wayne Industries. It looked like Wonder Woman had friends in high places. Her heart started beating faster in excitement.

"I think it's time you both told me everything – not the Cliff Notes' version." Diana said grimly. "Then, I'll track down your friend while you both go home – and stay there."

Lana nodded in agreement, but Chloe shook her head.

"What?" Diana was starting to get a little exasperated – what was wrong with this girl?

"We'll tell you what you need to know – but I want something in return. After all – we're going to be betraying a good friend here." 

Lana looked at Chloe with confusion – what was she talking about? Chloe knew full well that Clark wouldn't care if they told Wonder Woman who he was – if it meant him returning to normal. 

"Hhmm, I see." Diana appraised the blonder girl coldly. "You'd like to bargain? Very well – what do you want?"

"An interview – with Wonder Woman. An exclusive interview for the Daily Planet."

Lana grimaced and rolled her eyes. Everything was always a story with that girl.

Diana shook her head. "I can't do that. Wonder Woman doesn't do press. You should know that."

"I know – that's why it's going to be even better – because I'm the only one that'll ever get one." Chloe's eyes shone with excitement and passion.

Diana smiled in spite of herself. She had to respect the courage and passion in the young woman before her. On the other hand, her selfish actions could potentially hurt innocent people.

"Tell you what, Chloe? Why don't I deal with Kal – or, rather, Clark - first? And, I promise you, I'll give the interview some thought. I won't make any promises – but I'll think about it."

Chloe opened her mouth to argue.

"No – that's already more than I've ever given to any reporter." Diana's mouth was set in a stubborn line.

Chloe nodded, ready to take whatever she could get. Obviously, if Diana had refused, she would have still given her the info needed to help Clark. But, Wonder Woman didn't need to know that.

"All right, now that you're both done bargaining – could we get on with it? We have a friend to help." 

Quickly, both girls told a very bemused Diana the whole story about Clark – up until that very day and the whole problem with the Red K.

Diana shook her head in disapproval when they were finally done talking. "Let me get this straight – this red rock makes your super-strong friend go crazy and you gave it to him, anyway? Are you girls stupid or just have a death wish?"

Lana and Chloe flinched at the harsh tone. They couldn't deny her words.

"Well, in our defense, we were trying to help innocent people. We were trying to track down a killer."

Diana didn't stop to consider the irony that a bunch of college students were trying to solve the very case that had her posing as a college student.

She pulled the tracking device from her pocket and read the location on its screen. "21 Carlton Place, Apt. C." 

"Oh my God!" Lana exclaimed. "That's Lois's apartment."


	6. Chapter 6

Lois hobbled up the stairs to her apartment in her stilettos. Her feet were killing her and she was really wishing her apartment complex had an elevator.

Tonight wasn't the first night she was regretting that she lived on the top floor. Were the balcony and the view really worth it? She sighed. Her feet were telling her that they weren't.

Lois finally made it to her floor and walked towards her front door, rummaging in her purse for her keys. She smiled slightly when she remembered that her roommate was gone for the weekend, so she'd have the whole place to herself.

She unlocked the door and walked into her tiny apartment. For a moment she just stood there in the dark and took a deep breath of contentment. Lois loved this place. Not just because it was clean and decorated in a simple, elegant style. Mainly she loved it because it was the first place she'd ever been able to choose herself.

It wasn't like the various army bases where she'd grown up. It wasn't the Kent farm, where she'd been an unwanted guest. It wasn't the apartment above the Talon that had been decorated by Lana using Lex's money.

It was all hers. Everything in the apartment (except her roommate's bedroom) had been chosen by her. She'd even convinced the landlord to let her paint the walls. And the best part was that she'd paid for it all herself. Not even one cent came from the General.

Lois thought back to the day her father had cut her off without a penny – because she had refused to continue searching for Lucy. Sometimes, it paid to have your father kick you out and make you wake up to reality. Ever since she'd started working at the Talon and run Jonathan Kent's campaign, Lois had learned the value of hard work. Also, it helped that her healthy paycheck as Martha's chief of staff had gone a long way towards paying off her debts and whatever had been left over had been invested quite wisely.

Lois pulled herself out her trip down memory lane and grinned to herself. She was wasting precious moments of freedom in her vacant apartment. She fumbled near the door for the light switch.

"You know, it isn't really safe to leave your balcony door unlocked. Anyone could just wander in." An amused voice came out from the shadows in the corner of her living room. 

"What the #?" Lois's heart jumped to her throat and she flipped the switch on, flooding the room with light.

She blinked for a moment to adjust her eyes and saw Clark Kent leaning against a wall, with his arms crossed. He wore a crooked grin of amusement and his eyes were laughing at her discomfort and fear. 

Lois swallowed back her fear and tried to calm her erratic heart rate. She wasn't going to admit it to him, of course, but Lois figured she'd just lost at least ten years of her life. 

"Clark? What the hell are you doing here?" She eyed him warily as she made her way to the sofa to take off her shoes. Lois looked around. "Wait? How'd you get in?"

Clark pushed himself away from the wall slowly and walked towards the arm chair. He reclined on the chair and propped his long legs on the ottoman in front of it. He looked over at her and winked.

"Let's just say, Lois, where there's a will, there's a way."

Her eyes followed his gaze to balcony doors – her open balcony doors. Lois practically ran out to the balcony to look for a ladder - or anything that he could have used. She scanned the ground and railings. There was nothing there.

"You came in through my balcony? What did you do, fly?" Lois stomped back into the room – well as much as she could stomp in bare, aching feet.

He shrugged elegantly and smiled. "Like I said, where there's a will - ."

"… There's a way." She finished for him. Lois let out a frustrated groan and tucked a stray hair behind her ear. She glared at Clark. "Well, will your way out of here, Smallville. I have a date with my tub and you're in the way."

"Really?" Clark looked interested and instead of getting up, he settled himself more comfortably into her armchair. There was an odd gleam in his blue-green eyes.

"Don't stop on my account. Go ahead. In fact, just call out and I'll be happy to come in if you need any help." His voice was low and husky as he casually waved a hand towards the hallway leading to her bathroom.

Lois stared at him in shock. Had Clark just offered to take a _bath_ with her? She looked him over for a moment. Obviously, he was still under the influence of whatever Chloe and Lana had done to him. The Clark Kent she knew would never have been able to get those words out without stammering and blushing up a storm.

This Clark Kent was far from embarrassed. There was a clear invitation in his eyes and he was lounging in her living room like he owned the place. He looked dark and seductive in his black shirt… no signs of his usual plaid anywhere.

The material complimented his coloring and molded to his rock hard chest and upper arms. The dark-blue denim showed off every muscle of the long legs stretched before her and her eyes wandered down to the black shoes resting on the ottoman.

Her throat suddenly felt dry and Lois swallowed. For the first time in a long time, Lois allowed herself to notice and look at Clark the way a woman looks at a man. Usually, she didn't allow herself to think about how attractive he was, but tonight, he was making it impossible to ignore. She let her eyes drift over his perfect body and Lois couldn't help but admit to herself that she liked what she saw. A lot.

The realization made her knees turn to jelly and she sat down abruptly, feeling a liquid heat spread her. Lois took a deep breath and turned to look at the kitchen, the TV, her coffee table – anything but him.

She closed her eyes and willed her heart beat back to normal and tried to get control of her emotions and raging hormones. What was she doing? This was Clark – Smallville, bumbling farm boy… totally not her type. For God's sake, she was friends with his mother. There was no way she could take advantage of Martha Kent's son and be able to look the woman in the eye ever again.

The thought of the gentle, auburn-haired woman brought Lois crashing back to earth and her eyes snapped open. She leaned forward, bracing her arms on her legs.

"Listen… Smallville. This is not you." Lois said firmly. "I know you think it is – but it's whatever Chloe and Lana did to you." She cast him a contemplative look. "What did they do, anyway? Did they spike your milk?"

"They didn't do anything to me, Lois." Clark smiled sardonically. "At least, not anything I didn't want. This really is me. Not a side I usually let out – which is a pity – but it's still all me."

"Okay, well, if it is you, then it's a side of you I don't want to get to know." Lois countered.

"Is that true, Lois?" Clark challenged her, swinging his long legs off the ottoman and leaning forward in his chair, closer to her.

It took her a second to recover her voice.

"Hhhmmm, yeah, it's true. This Clark is a rude, arrogant, male chauvinist pig. In short, a jerk."

"Well, the other Clark is a whining, brooding, annoying, immature, bumbling farm boy." Clark appraised her for a moment, his head cocked to the side. "At least, according to you."

He got up, sat down next to her and draped one arm across the back of the sofa. His hand was right next to her shoulder. Lois felt the room shrink a bit and a shiver of awareness swept through her.

"I would think you would prefer this version of me." His voice became soft and silky as he edged closer to her. "After all, don't you usually go for the jerks, Lois?"

Lois sucked in her breath as she realized two things. One: He was right – she did usually go for jerks. And two: Clark Kent was the hottest guy she'd ever met.


	7. Chapter 7

Lois looked at Clark silently, trying to figure out a way to move to a different sofa without him realizing his effect on her. She'd never live it down if he remembered all this later and figured out that she'd actually been attracted to him while he was doped up. Perhaps she could say she needed a glass of water….Lois thought for a second and realized she actually could use a drink of water. Preferably a cold one.

Clark moved a bit closer to her and she pulled back. Lois glared at him when she saw his lips turn up in a knowing smirk.

"No answer, Lois?" Clark drawled, amused at her silence. He could hear Lois's heart beat faster.

She flushed and looked away. After fidgeting for a moment, Lois stood up abruptly and walked towards the open balcony doors. Clark leaned back and took a moment to admire her beauty as she stood in the moonlight, a faint breeze playing with her dark hair. She was barefoot and the tiny mini-skirt did nothing to hide her bare legs. He could smell the mingled scent of her perfume and shampoo lingering around him. 

Clark felt his eyes burn and he quickly closed them before he set her apartment on fire.

"What are you doing here, Smallville?" Lois finally said, breaking the silence that had fallen over the apartment. He knew that she'd gotten control of herself, because her heart rate was almost down to normal.

"I don't know." Clark answered, opening his eyes. He was actually being honest – he had no idea what had possessed him to come to Lois's apartment after his showdown with the woman from the club. He just had a feeling that he needed to get away and it just felt right to find Lois.

For some reason, her presence calmed him – even when he was affected by the Red K. He just felt _at home_ with her. If he'd been a romantic, he would have thought it was because he was in love with her. But he knew, quite clearly, he was not allowed to love anyone. Clark's life – Kal-El's life – wouldn't allow him to.

But a desire to be with her had led him here only to find she wasn't home. So, he'd followed his impulse and let himself in. Technically, he'd broken in - Lois just hadn't notice the broken lock, yet. Clark smiled a bit at the image of Lois' anger when she found out.

"I really think you should leave." Her hazel eyes narrowed as they focused on him.

"Why?"

"Because – " Lois let out a sigh. "It's late – and I know you're going to regret this in the morning.

"_I'm_ going to regret this?" Clark grinned lazily and stretched a bit. "Regret what, exactly? Are we going to be doing something that either of us is going to regret?" One brow rose in question as he looked at her intently.

Lois blinked at him in disbelief and placed her hands on her hips. This was not going exactly how she had planned. Why did he have an answer for everything? Okay, now she was starting to get irritated.

"Clark, seriously, you should go." Lois frowned and crossed her arms.

"We're just talking, Lois. Unless you'd rather do something different? All you have to do is ask – I'd be happy to oblige." Clark shot her a knowing look, again with a blatant invitation in his eyes.

Lois snorted and rolled her eyes. "Puh-lease. You'd be the last guy in the world, Smallville. Seriously – even if the future of the human civilization depended on it, I still wouldn't go there."

"Why?" Far from looking offended, he just looked curious – and vaguely amused, like he knew something she didn't.

"What do you mean, why? We both know why."

"We do?" Clark appraised her for a moment, considering her words. He smiled faintly and shook his head. "I'm a bit slow, Lois. Enlighten me… what is it that we both know?"

"You know what I'm talking about, Smallville. You're obviously doped up on something and I'm not going to be the one you use to relieve your inner horn-dog. Okay?" 

The smile faded from his face. "You always did have a way with words, Lois."

"I know. Thank you." Lois said briskly.

"It was an insult, not a compliment."

"Really? Well, I'll take it as a compliment."

"You would. It's easier that way. Otherwise you might actually have to accept that you're not perfect."

The last strand keeping her temper in check snapped at his words and Lois broke out in an angry tirade. 

"What are you talking about? I know I'm not perfect. You're the one who thinks you need to be perfect. The perfect son … the perfect best friend … the perfect boyfriend. Hell, you kept breaking up with Lana just because you were convinced that one day you would hurt her – without actually just waiting to see if you did."

Clark was very still and just stared at her during her outburst. She continued without waiting for a response.

"You're the one who always keeps yourself locked up so no one knows the real Clark Kent. You can never lose control or make any mistakes. God forbid anyone find out you're really human."

Clark let out a bitter laugh. "Yeah, we wouldn't want people thinking that, would we?"

"No, we wouldn't. Now, get out, Smallville. I'm sick of playing these games with you. You're hiding something – I can tell. And I just don't feel like playing twenty questions tonight. Not that I'm going to get any answers, anyway."

Lois stalked over to the front door and yanked it open. She glared at him. Clark stood up and walked to her, but instead of leaving he reached out and closed the door. He towered over her, his hands placed on either side of her, backing her up against the door.

"You sound just like Lana. She was always on my case about hiding things, too. It's quite annoying." His angry gaze raked down her body contemptuously. "Except with you, I don't get any benefits to make it worth the hassle."

Lois glared up at him and scoffed. "Give me a break – you get possessed like every other day and I go along with it. In case you hadn't noticed – I'm the only one that actually doesn't bother to question your weirdness. I figure – hey, if you want to share you will. Don't act like I've ever made things hard for you – because that's bull."

Lois pushed past him in a huff without waiting for a response. Suddenly, she whipped back around to face him. "And – by the way – don't you dare compare me to Lana."

She found herself losing her temper, and willed herself to calm down. Lois forced a brazen smirk to her lips. "Trust me, Smallville, if I was your girlfriend – the benefits would ensure that you wouldn't even remember her name."

"Really?" Clark's eyes flickered with an odd look of jealousy and anger. "Well, I wouldn't know, would I? Perhaps I should just ask all the other guys on campus – there've been enough of them over the past few years." 

"What? Are you… are you… did you just imply I'm a slut?" Lois's eyes widened with shock.

"I'm not implying it, I'm saying it." Clark corrected, his eyes cold as he deliberately made a show of checking out her bare legs.

"Just because I didn't go into a three year mourning period over a failed relationship does not make me a slut." Lois shot back. 

"Relationship? Lois, when have you ever been in a relationship? I don't think a quickie in the backseat of a car counts." Clark smirked, unfazed by her reference to his time with Lana.

"For your information. I never – " Lois started to speak and then stopped. Why should she have to explain herself to him?

Lois took a breath and said stiffly, "What I do and where I do it is none of your business, Clark. And, frankly, if you were a true friend, you would have known that story wasn't true." 

"What? Are you going to deny that you haven't gone out with the whole male population at Met U over the past two years? Are you going to deny that you never go out with a guy more than once? You're going to pretend that you don't drink and dance on tables?" Clark crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall, his jaw clenched in anger.

The blood drained from Lois's face. "Is that really what you think of me, Clark? For your information, I danced on a table _once_ and it was at Chloe's 21st birthday party. And how many guys I go out with is none of your business. Not that it's possible for me to have gone out with that many guys, anyway, but whatever."

Clark looked away. "So, you're going to stand there and tell me everything I've heard about the infamous Lois Lane ever since I transferred here has been a lie?

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm telling you. So, that's really how you view me? After all this time?"

"Isn't that how you want to be known, Lois?" 

Lois rubbed her hands across her face. When she spoke, her voice was soft and tired. "You know, I always thought you were the most chivalrous man I've ever known. A true gentleman – the Clark Kent I know would never stand there and talk to a woman that way." 

After removing her hands from her face, she stared at him with disbelief. "What did they do to you? I can't figure it out." Lois examined him from top to bottom trying to decipher what was out of place.

Clark kept silent and didn't answer. He stayed where he was and continued to look at her with a mixture of desire and anger. Lois flinched at the expression – she had to make him normal fast. Whatever her friends had done, it wasn't really working for Clark.

_Lane, be mad at him later, just get him normal first_, Lois instructed herself.

As she looked him over, Lois noticed for the first time that he was wearing a ring. Lois frowned – he never wore jewelry. It had a red stone in the center and as she studied it, she saw that it was glowing faintly. Her gaze traveled up and met his smoldering blue-green eyes. There seemed to be an odd red light there.

Lois sucked in her breath - it all clicked into place. It was the ring. It had to be… Lois had seen this before. It wasn't the first odd piece of jewelry she'd seen since she'd met the inhabitants of Smallville, Kansas.

"Smallville?" Lois continued to speak in a low voice, not wanting him to get all riled up. She wasn't exactly sure what the plan was, but she needed to convince him it was in his best interest to take off the ring. 

"Yes, Metropolis?" Clark responded, his voice husky and uneven. The anger had somewhat left his voice and didn't seem as tense as before.

Lois paused as she felt wave of desire flood through her at his words and voice. She had to admit, there was a part of her that was going to miss this dark, sexy side of Clark. Then she remembered how rude he'd just been. Okay, a small part of her. She took a deep breath and forced herself to stay firm. 

"Clark," Lois said firmly. "I've figured it out." 

"What did you figure out?" Clark stared at her – was she talking about his powers?

"I've figured out that it's the ring. You need to take it off, Clark."

Clark stared at the beautiful young woman standing across from him, stunned by her words. "What makes you think it's the ring? Why would you say that?"

"Ah, because you never wear jewelry? It clashes with your usual wardrobe." Lois smiled a bit. "It's the only thing that makes sense – in a weird, meteor rock kind of a way. But, hey, anything's possible in Kansas."

Clark let out a sigh of relief – or was it disappointment? For a moment, he had thought Lois knew who he was. And instead of sending him into a panic, he had felt – vaguely – happy. He shook his head – obviously it was because of the Red K.

Lois misinterpreted the motion. "C'mon, Smallville. You know you want to – don't you want to go back to normal? Be the usual plaid wearing boy scout?" 

"Why would you want me to, Lois?" Clark looked at her intently. "I would think that out of all the people I know, you'd be the first person to tell me that this Clark is an improvement. You hate the usual Clark."

"No, I don't." Lois shook her head.

"Sure you do – and why wouldn't you? That Clark Kent is an idiot."

"No," Lois said softly and began walking closer to him. "He's not an idiot. He's smart, he's sweet, he's kind and caring. He's nice. That Clark Kent makes me laugh – he always looks for the best in people no matter what they do."

Lois stopped right in front of him and gently placed her left hand on his face. She whispered, "That Clark Kent is the best guy I've ever known – and he makes me want to be a better person."

Clark tensed and, instinctively, covered her hand with his own.

"Take off the ring, Clark," Lois whispered. "You don't need it – you're already perfect the way you are. You don't need something to make you change who you are. You're pretty spectacular already, Smallville."

Clark's eyes never left hers as he dropped his hand. Lois watched as he slowly slid the ring off of his finger and let it drop to the floor. As soon as the ring left his possession he groaned and swayed a bit. Clark grabbed his head and Lois grabbed a hold of him, and helped him over to the chair. He looked exhausted and in pain. Lois knelt down next to him to smooth his hair back and make sure he was okay.

"Well, that was very touching." A feminine voice came from the balcony. Both Lois and Clark started and turned towards the doors.

Lois gasped as a beautiful, raven-haired woman in full dominatrix mode walked into the room. She was wearing a blue, red, and gold costume and had a golden rope rolled up and attached to her belt. There was a faint smile on her lips.

Lois stood up, put her hand on her hip and glared down at a dazed Clark.

"I can't believe it, Smallville. You invited a stripper?"


	8. Chapter 8

"A stripper? Excuse me?" The faint smile that had been playing at Diana's lips died as she absorbed the insult.

Lois made a show of taking in Diana's outfit from top to bottom and smirked. "Well, what are you then? It's not Halloween."

Diana was about to answer the rude comment and equally rude stare with a few choice ones of her own, when Clark stood up and stepped between them.

"She's not a stripper, Lois. And, really, I think you should probably stop talking at this point," Clark said somewhat desperately.

Lois's jaw dropped. "What do you mean? You're going to stand here in my apartment and tell me to be quiet? I don't think so…" She stepped around Clark and moved towards the taller woman. "Who are you and what is going on here? How'd you get in?" Lois glanced towards the balcony and then looked at the two of them. "And what is up with my balcony? I want some – "

Lois didn't get a chance to finish the sentence. Right at that that moment, a very irritated Diana reached out and touched Lois lightly on the neck, right below her ear.

Lois immediately passed out. Clark reached out quickly to catch her before she hit the floor.

"Lois!" Clark glared at Diana, as he carried Lois effortlessly to the sofa. He laid her out and pulled the navy blue throw over her body. "What did you just do her?" He zeroed in on Lois's pulse and breathing, checking to make sure she was okay.

"Nothing, really. It's just a trick I picked up from a friend. She'll be fine." Diana smiled, glad that the annoying woman was out cold.

Clark straightened and eyed the tall woman warily. "A trick?"

"Yes – not much to it, really. You just apply a bit of pressure to a point on the neck. Much better than what I used to do – I find this method much more effective than just hitting people over the head. That left a lot of bruises." Diana remarked with a bright smile.

"What?" Clark exclaimed, appalled.

Diana laughed at the expression on his face. "It's a joke, Clark – I would never harm an innocent person." She paused, thought for a moment and added, "Even if they were as annoying as your girlfriend."

Clark flushed. "She's not my girlfriend. We're just… just friends." He gazed down on Lois's sleeping form and missed the odd look Diana shot his way. He cleared his throat. "Is she going to be okay?"

"Yeah, she'll be fine. She'll wake up with a massive headache, but that's about it."

"I see. That's not too bad, then." Clark let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh – and there will be a bit of a memory loss." Diana added in a matter-of-fact way.

"Memory loss? What does that mean?"

"It's not that big of a deal," Diana assured him, "basically, she'll just lose the last five minutes before I made her black out. Which means she won't even remember that she ever met me."

Diana added under her breath, "Too bad I can't forget I met her."

Clark ignored the comment and rubbed the back of his neck as he gazed down at Lois. She looked peaceful, like she was taking a nap.

"It figures." Clark smiled ruefully.

"What figures?"

Clark glanced at Diana and sighed. "It figures Lois would end up forgetting the only five minutes in her life she's been nice to me."

Diana couldn't help it – she let out a laugh. Her voice was beautiful, but her laugh was even more so – it was melodious and smooth.

Clark was riveted and couldn't help but notice, again, that she was the most gorgeous woman he had ever met. Not that he was interested in her – obviously, Lois was much more fascinating and special to him – but he wasn't blind.

There was something about her – she was the epitome of the perfect woman. Not only was she beautiful, she seemed to have a cloak of confidence about her that made her appear invulnerable. Clark found that it scared him a bit. She made her absurd costume look like a royal gown. How did she do that? He envied her and the confidence with which she carried herself.

"Clark, I think we should go. We have a lot to talk about." Diana interrupted his thoughts, apparently not sensing his discomfort.

Clark hesitated, worried about just leaving Lois alone in the apartment.

"She'll be fine." Diana assured him. "Like I said, she'll have a bit of headache, but she'll be waking up in about ten minutes. It's probably better that we aren't here when she does."

"Why is that?" Clark raised a brow.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I don't feel like having a whole conversation about myself in front of your girl… your, ah, friend." Diana amended. "I'm assuming you have questions about me, right?"

"Well, yes." Clark admitted, reluctantly. He wasn't exactly sure he wanted to go somewhere with her – the last time they'd been alone hadn't gone very well. Then something occurred to him and he looked at her suspiciously. "But don't you have questions about me? Why didn't you barge in here and take up where we left off? Why are you acting so nice?"

"I had a long chat with your friends – Chloe and Lana." Diana shot him a sardonic smile. "I think that at this stage, I know a lot more about you than you would have ever wanted me to know."

"You mean -?" Clark had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He made a mental note to have a long talk with his friends if he got out of this alive.

Diana nodded. "I know you were wearing a ring with a red rock – it makes you go crazy or something."

_Or something_, Clark thought but didn't say out loud.

"And I know the green rock makes you lose your powers and can really hurt you. I was going to use the green rock to force you to take the ring off, but then I saw that this girl was talking you into it and I just waited to see what would happen." Diana glanced down at Lois. "She's quite persuasive."

Clark face heated up and he changed the subject. "Yes, well, I think it's only fair then that you tell me about yourself and answer my questions."

"You're right – and I'll provide answers. Just not in front of her." Diana nodded towards the sleeping figure on the couch. "No offense – but that woman would drive me insane within two minutes. And then I won't be accountable for my actions."

"She's not that bad." Clark defended Lois. Diana shot him an incredulous look and he added with a grin, "After you've known her a few years. Trust me, she grows on you."

"Hhmm," Diana tapped her chin thoughtfully, as she looked at Clark with clear disbelief in her blue eyes. "I'll just have to take your word for it."

Clark laughed.

"Anyway…" Diana abruptly changed the topic. "Should we go? It's getting late. I have a long day ahead of me."

Diana didn't wait for a response and walked out to the balcony, obviously expecting Clark to follow.

Clark hesitated for a second and then realized that he trusted her. He wasn't sure why, but there was something about her that made him feel like he could depend on her. Clark had an odd sense that this woman would fight for him, if it came down to it. Diana just seemed innately good.

Clark joined her and looked down at the street. He glanced back at Diana and saw that she was hovering above the ground a few feet and looking at him expectantly.

"Aahh… well… there's a slight problem." Clark said uncomfortably. "I can't fly."

"What do you mean?" Diana frowned in confusion. "You were flying when we were fighting earlier."

"It's a side effect of the Red K" Clark explained. "But, usually, when I'm normal – I can't fly. It's not really one of my abilities."

"I see." Diana descended back to the ground and walked closer to him. "I wonder why that is?"

"I don't know." Clark shook his head.

Diana thought for a moment. "Okay, well, there's no point getting into that right now. I'll just have to give you a lift."

Clark shot her a blank look, with a trace of amusement. "No thanks. You may be really strong, but I don't think you're strong enough to carry me – you'll end up dropping me and that would not be pleasant."

"What do you care if I drop you? You're invulnerable – nothing would happen." Diana asked and then added, "Unless you fall on someone – they could get hurt, I suppose."

Clark hadn't even considered that possibility. Finally, he admitted it. "Actually… the thing is… I'm kind of afraid of heights."

Diana let out an inelegant snort of derision. "Oh, for the love of Hera - you have _got_ to be kidding me."

Clark opened his mouth to respond, but before he got even one sound out, she had removed the golden rope attached to her belt. Less than a second later, she'd lassoed it around his frame and grabbed a hold of the rope near his waist. The next thing he knew, she'd shot straight up into the sky, taking him with her.

At first, Clark panicked, sure that she wouldn't be able to hold him, but when he opened his eyes and looked at her, he saw that Diana didn't look remotely tired and pulled him along with her effortlessly. One hand still grasped the rope and the other arm was held out straight in front of her, as though it was guiding her flying. Which, he supposed, it was.

Diana glanced at him and smiled. "The best form of transportation, don't you think?" She had raised her voice a bit to compensate for the wind, but Clark would have heard her, anyway.

Clark responded with a tentative smile. He wasn't sure he was quite ready yet to start conducting conversations while hurtling through the air. But he did look around and noticed that the sky was clear and beautiful – and that the wind felt great as they flew across the state. It was odd to fly without being under the influence of something. Everything seemed clearer and he didn't feel out of control, like he usually did when he was drugged out on the kryptonite.

It was a heady feeling – being up in the air and able to move at such a fast speed. They were so high up that no one would be able to see them below. Clark felt something he hadn't felt in a long time – a sense of freedom. After a bit, Clark let himself go and he allowed himself to just enjoy the experience and he felt an odd contentment and peace steal over him.

_Back at Lois's apartment..._

"Lois? Lois, wake up!" Chloe's voice was loud and echoed through her conscious. She felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Wha-?" Lois mumbled and opened her eyes with difficulty. The harsh light made her wince and she quickly closed them again. Her head was pounding and she felt kind of queasy.

Slowly, she sat up, with her eyes still closed, and held onto her aching head. Lois opened her eyes again and met the concerned gaze of her cousin.

"What happened?" Chloe asked nervously, reaching out to help pull Lois into a sitting position.

Lois thought for a second. Then, she promptly panicked. Her mind was a blank – she couldn't remember why she was on the couch or how she'd gotten there. She looked down and saw that her blue chenille throw was wrapped around her. Lois tried to ignore the pain behind her eyes.

"Okaayyy…. The last thing I remember is fighting with Smallville."

"Fighting with Clark?" Chloe's eyes widened in alarm. "He fought you? Why? Did he… did he…" Chloe couldn't even bring herself to finish the thought.

"Not fight as in physical fight, Chloe" Lois rolled her eyes and gave her an exasperated look. "Fight as in argument… we were arguing…" Lois's voice trailed off as bits and pieces of the night came back to her. She saw herself in living room, yelling at Clark and Clark saying really rude and mean things to her.

Lois blinked and looked around her apartment. Her cousin sat on the sofa, near her legs and Lana was perched on the coffee table, looking at Lois with big, worried eyes. Lois glanced down at the blanket thrown across her legs in confusion.

"Uh, so where is Smallville?" Lois asked, finally realizing that he wasn't in the room.

"We were just going to ask you that." Chloe said, glancing towards the hallway, as though expecting the man to emerge from the bedroom.

Lana cleared her throat. The slight sound caused the Lois's headache to explode even more.

"The last we knew, he was supposed to be in your apartment. We tried to get here as fast as we could, but it looks like we were too late. Did you see him? Did he tell you where he was going?" Lana was completely oblivious to the dirty look Lois was throwing her way.

"Lana, jeez, stop yelling. My head is killing me."

Lana frowned in confusion. "I'm not yelling. At least, I don't think I am." She looked towards Chloe for confirmation, who nodded in return. "There must be something wrong, Lois. Are you hung over?"

Lois glared at Lana. "No, I am not hung over. Why does everyone think I drink too much? I am not a drunk – sure, I enjoy my drinks now and then but I am over twenty-one and since when is it a crime - ."

"Okay, okay, we get the picture." Chloe interrupted Lois' torrent of words. "Yes, you are not a drunk. We get that – Lana had a valid question, Lo."

"It is not a valid question!" Lois insisted, feeling a bit hurt that Chloe was taking Lana's side. She looked at the clock hanging on the opposite wall. "It's freakin' two in the morning, Clo – anyone is entitled to be sleeping on their couch, with a headache. Why do you guys always think that when I do it, it has to be alcohol induced?"

"Because you're still wearing your clothes from the bar and all your make-up is still on." Lana pointed out, with a slight smile. Lois didn't smile back and Lana sighed. "Look, I'm sorry, Lois. I didn't mean it as an insult."

"It's fine." Lois said, a bit begrudgingly. "I think that it's just – after the stuff Smallville said… well, I'm a bit sensitive about it, I guess."

"Clark? What exactly did he say? We need to find him." Chloe asked in a concerned voice.

"I don't know, Chloe. The last thing I remember is standing in the middle of the living room – he was near the door. We were yelling at each other. He was –." Lois stopped… she wasn't quite ready to reveal the details of what Clark had said to her. His words still stung.

"What?" Lana looked at her nervously. "What was he doing?"

"He wasn't doing anything – we were just fighting, as usual."

"Then how'd you get here? Where'd he go?" Chloe asked, again glancing around the room.

"I… well…he…we…" Lois struggled to remember and ran her hand through her long hair in frustration. "I don't know. That's all I remember. I have no clue why I'm on my couch with a pounding headache. There's just this… I guess…a hole in my memory."

Chloe pondered the situation for a moment. "Do you think he hit you on the head? Remember, he's done that once before – that one time he was hypnotized by the slut."

"No, I don't think he did. I mean, he was acting pretty weird, but he was definitely not displaying any violent tendencies." Lois paused and a ghost of a smirk played around her lips. "And it's not like he could take me on, anyway."

Lana and Chloe exchanged an amused glance.

"How was he acting weird? Did he threaten you or anything? Did he mention anything?" Lana asked.

"Well…" Lois said slowly, her mind going back to the scene that had taken place earlier in the night. "He was hitting on me. A lot, actually. And he was pretty – blunt, to say the least."

Lana wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Yeah, I know. I hate it when he gets like that."

"Yeah," Chloe nodded her head in agreement and rolled her eyes. "It's crazy and really annoying."

Lois's jaw dropped in surprise. Now, she wasn't really sure what had possessed Smallville to start acting like a college Casanova – but to say that it was unattractive was a complete lie. She stared at both of them searchingly and realized that they were telling the truth. They didn't like it. What was wrong with them? Or, more importantly, Lois thought, what was wrong with _her_?

"Yes, you're right. Er…um…not attractive at all. Totally repulsive." Lois nodded vigorously, wincing at the jabbing pain the motion caused. "Anyway, setting that aside – ah, where do you think he went, Chlo? And what'd he do to my head?"

"I don't know... let's see if we can figure it out." Chloe shot Lois an odd, questioning look.

Chloe stood up and began walking around the small living room, looking for clues.


	9. Chapter 9

_Somewhere in the Rocky Mountains…._

"So who exactly are you? And why'd you bring us here? You still haven't answered any of my questions."

Clark let out a frustrated breath as he watched Diana pace back and forth in front of him. He glanced around the mountain top and sat down on a boulder near a cave. The wind was cold but, of course, he wasn't feeling any discomfort. Apparently, neither was Diana -- even though she was barely dressed.

Diana abruptly stopped pacing and blinked in surprise. She looked at Clark as though she'd almost forgotten he was there. She walked closer to him and settled down on a rock near him.

"Ah, yes, right. Well, I guess I should introduce myself."

"You think?" Clark muttered under his breath, not feeling particularly happy about the jaunt to Colorado at two in the morning.

Diana raised a brow at his comment, but decided to ignore it.

"My name is Diana Prince – at least that's how I'm known to most people. I'm an FBI agent by profession and - ."

Clark let out a chuckle and raised his brows. "So that's the current uniform for an agent these days? I don't think I'll choose that route when I graduate, then." He glanced over her outfit meaningfully.

Diana frowned and looked sternly at the younger man before her. "Excuse me – you didn't let me finish. Didn't your mother teach you it's rude to interrupt people while they're talking?"

Clark flushed and looked down at the snow that covered the ground. He didn't know what had gotten into him – perhaps he was still feeling the effects of the Red K. "Sorry – won't happen again."

"As I was saying," Diana continued pointedly, "That is how I'm known to most people. I am also Princess Diana, from the Greek island of Themyscira." Diana paused and continued in a proud tone. "I belong to an Amazonian warrior tribe and I've been gifted various superhuman abilities by the gods. The reason I wear this – " She glanced down at her attire and looked back up a Clark with a sardonic gleam in her blue eyes. "Outfit is because the gods gifted me with these – this is the Lasso of Truth and this is the Golden Girdle of Gaea. The bracelets are formed from the shield of Aegis and are completely indestructible." She indicated towards the various bits of her costume.

Clark cleared his throat. "Please don't be offended when I say this – but I didn't get most of what you just said." He grinned sheepishly. "You kind of lost me at 'Greek island'."

Diana sighed and rolled her eyes. "I'm an Amazonian princess and I've got superpowers. In New York City, they know me as Wonder Woman. I'm Diana Prince, FBI agent by day and Wonder Woman by night. This outfit helps keep me from getting killed and keeps my identity a secret. There, does that help?"

Clark nodded. "So, you're a princess with superpowers? Why are you working as an FBI agent, then? And what were you doing in Metropolis at a club?"

"That is an excellent question. I was working the same case that you and friends were working on." Diana smiled grimly. "Except, of course, I was 'officially' working undercover on the case and you and your friends were … just getting in the way."

"Well, I don't know about that. My friends and I have managed to help the local law enforcement quite a bit over the years."

"Really? While you were under the influence of the red rock?"

Clark flushed. "Well, no – but that had to be part of the plan this time."

"Hhmm…" Diana tapped a finger against her cheek and pretended to think for a second. "So, the plan was that you would try to beat up a helpless woman in an alleyway while your mortal friends looked on? How was that going to help you catch the killer, again? Am I missing something?"

"Hey, you weren't helpless," Clark protested. "And I think you started it first."

"Actually, I didn't start it – you did. And you didn't know that I wasn't helpless." Diana glared at him crossly. "You were lucky that I was the one that left the club with you. Any other girl and you could have seriously harmed her."

"I wouldn't have hurt anyone. It doesn't work that way. Red K doesn't make me evil, Diana. It just makes me … well… stop thinking so much."

"Thinking is not a bad thing, Clark." Diana countered. "Especially when you've got such powerful abilities. You can't decide not to think – it's completely irresponsible. What were you doing, giving yourself over to that kind of lack of control voluntarily? Once you put that ring on you couldn't take it off even if you wanted to, could you? You put it on and completely lost control – of your powers and your ability to distinguish right from wrong."

Clark shook his head. "I could have taken it off. In fact, I did take it off. Look, the only reason I did it was to help Lana and Chloe –"

"Give me a break, Clark!" Diana interrupted. "That's the worse excuse you could come up with – a couple of college girls flash a smile at you and you just hand over all control of your abilities. There are so many things wrong with that – I can't even begin to decide where to start."

"Hey – didn't your mother teach you not to interrupt someone when they're speaking?" Clark smiled a bit to soften the harsh words.

Diana flinched as her earlier words were tossed back in her face. "I apologize," she said stiffly and nodded regally. "Please continue."

Clark rolled his eyes a bit at that. Even when the woman was wrong she still managed to look graceful and arrogant.

"Look, I wanted to go undercover to help catch the guy that's been killing those girls. The only way to do it was to become part of that fraternity." Clark looked down at the ground uncomfortably. "I'm not the kind of guy that can just go and get into something like that. Chloe and Lana thought that if I used the Red K it would be easier."

Diana was silent and waited for him to continue.

"And it was easier – I had an invitation within a day. Red K gives me the kind of confidence that I usually just don't have. It helps let go of inhibitions that usually keep me apart from other people – or just people, in general, I guess. I didn't do it because Lana and Chloe flashed a smile at me – I did it because I wanted to help." Clark looked at Diana a bit defiantly.

Diana's eyes softened and she reached out to rest her hand on Clark's arm. "While that's admirable - do you think that maybe, just maybe, there was a part of you that wanted a reason to use the Red K? A reason that didn't have anything to do with finding a killer?"  
"What do you mean?"  
"Surely, you must have known on some level that once you put that ring on you wouldn't care about helping your friends or avenging the death of those girls? It's not a bad thing if that's the case, Clark. I just don't want you to be in denial about it."

Clark looked away from her unwavering gaze and swallowed. "Maybe – you're probably right. I don't know. You are right, though – it was irresponsible and it didn't help the cause in any way." Clark let out a hollow laugh. "In fact, we've lost time because of it."

"Maybe you've lost a bit of time – but I haven't. And, now, I'm in a better position that I was before." Diana said briskly, removing her hand from Clark's arm and going back to her business like tone.

"What do you mean?" Clark raised a questioning brow.

"I mean that you are going to help me catch this guy. Without the benefit of drugs – in any shape or form."

"You still want me to help you? Even after I screwed up? What about all that stuff you just said about me being irresponsible?" Clark stared at her incredulously.

Diana shrugged. "You're young – you'll learn. Right now finding this monster is more important than my ego and your pride. You have an in and I'm going to use it. I have the law and you're going to use that. We're going to forget everything that already happened and work together to bring this guy down – because that's what people like us do, Clark. Work as a team - for the greater good."

"Truth, justice, and the American way…" Clark mused.

"What?" Diana shot him a blank look.

Clark shook his head and smiled fondly. "Nothing – I just remembered something my mother once said in a speech."

"Your mother? Are you very close to her?"

"Yes, I am."

"Well," Diana let out a genuine grin. "I have to respect a man that knows the value of his mother. I get a feeling, Clark Kent, that you and I will be great friends."

Clark eyed her dubiously with a slight smile on his face. "Okay – on one condition."

"What's that?"

"That we agree to fight on the same side from now on." Clark rubbed his shoulder in a mock gesture of pain. "I don't think I can take round two."

Diana shook her head and laughed. She quickly lassoed Clark and hovered in the air for a few seconds.

"Ready to head back?"

Clark nodded – all traces of his former reluctance gone. "Let's do it."

The two figures flew towards Metropolis and the work that awaited them there.

_Meanwhile..._

"Do you mind telling me what we're looking for, Chloe?" Lois had watched her cousin look all over the apartment for the past twenty minutes and she couldn't take it anymore.  
Lois turned to the petite girl sprawled on the armchair, half asleep. "Lana, do you know what she's doing?"

Lana shook herself awake. "Um, no, not really. But, then again, I usually don't know what Chloe's doing. I've learned to just go with the flow. Try it, Lois. It's a lot easier, I promise."

"Go with the flow? Seriously? Have you been inhaling all those candles you guys are in love with? What does that even mean?"

"Lois, shut up." This came from Chloe, whose head was hidden by the sofa. She appeared to be looking for something under the piece of furniture.

Lois's hazel eyes widened in disbelief. "Did you just tell me to shut up? What is wrong with you?"

Chloe's head popped up and she glared at her older cousin. "What is wrong with me is that my best friend is missing. My cousin was the last person with him and she's apparently missing a few marbles. It's almost three in the morning and neither he nor her missing marbles are making an appearance any time soon. And, as usual, I'm the one left to put all the pieces to together and save the day. I'm kind of sick of it, Lo. Really, I am."

Shocked silence met Chloe's uncharacteristic outburst.  
Then, Lana let out a yawn and mumbled, "I don't know why you're so worried, Chloe. I'm sure Wonder Woman's got him by now. She'll take care of it."

Chloe grimaced and shot Lana a quelling glare. Lana had closed her eyes again and didn't notice.

"Ah, Wonder Woman? Who the hell is Wonder Woman? And why does she have Clark? And what's she taking care of, exactly? Chloe, what's the big secret with Clark? Don't deny there isn't one – because I know there is." Lois's eyes narrowed on Chloe's face and she stalked closer to the smaller woman.

Chloe gulped nervously. "Lois – honestly – I can't tell you. I mean, I really want to, but I can't."

"Can't or won't?" Lois asked grimly. "Because, you know, there is a difference."

"I can't, Lo. There are some things that are too big. Bigger than us – bigger than who I am – too many people could get hurt."

Lois stopped and considered that. "OK, fine. Then at least tell me who Wonder Woman is – can't you tell me that much? I promise I won't pry about the Clark thing – for now, anyway."

Lana was wide awake at this point and stared at Chloe, wondering what Chloe was going to do. Chloe thought for a second and then nodded.

"Wonder Woman is a superhero that's based out of New York. You know that woman that Clark left the bar with? Well, that was her. We told her that Clark was acting weird and she said she'd help us take care of it."

"How did you know the woman at the bar really was this Wonder Woman character?" Lois's brow furrowed in confusion. "Maybe it was someone that was pretending to be her? You just led her straight to Clark?"

Chloe smiled. "No, she's really Wonder Woman. I know she is."

"How?" Lois was skeptical. "Everyone knows that Smallville doesn't have the best of luck with gorgeous women. They usually do something weird to him. Something that, typically, involves taking off his clothes."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "I know because I have a file on her, okay? Everything she said and did matched with the records I have of her."

Lana let out a gasp of surprise. "You have a file on Wonder Woman? Even before you met her? Why?"

"Because I have a file on everyone." Chloe glanced at Lois and Lana, who were openly staring at her with distrust.  
Chloe was hurt. "I don't mean you guys! By everyone, I mean, everyone with super-powered abilities. Every superhero out there. I have files for Flash and Batman, too."

Lois gulped. "You have a file on Batman?"

"Yeah," Chloe looked at Lois's strange expression and frowned. "Why? What difference does it make?"

Lois shook her head. "Makes no difference at all. Just struck me as kind of … well… dangerous. Batman doesn't seem like the sort to be taken lightly. He might not like that you have a file on him."

Chloe shrugged. "Well, if the guy doesn't want people talking about him, he shouldn't run around in a bat suit."

"That's definitely true." Lana agreed with a small laugh.

"Okay, so have we established that the super-powered chick with zero fashion sense took Clark, then?" Lois brought everyone back to topic – even though she made a mental note to pester Chloe for her files later.

"Yeah, I think we are." Chloe said, glancing around the room one final time. "I don't know why you don't remember what happened to you, but I didn't find anything here that suggests Clark left voluntarily. So, she must have forced him to leave." Chloe frowned and began muttering to herself. "Maybe she did a mind wipe on you or something. Although, I don't know why she'd have to do that. Can she even do that? How would she do it? She didn't do it to us…."

Lois interrupted Chloe's one-sided conversation with herself. "Listen, 'cuz, what exactly where you looking for that would suggest that he left on his own? The thing that you couldn't find? Can you at least tell me that much?"

Chloe stopped pacing and rambling. Chloe glanced at Lana who gave her a slight nod. They both had discussed what to tell Lois when they got to her apartment and both of the friends were in agreement that Lois deserved some sort of explanation.

"Ah, yeah. Basically, Clark's allergic to red meteor rock. He was wearing a ring that was made of the rock and it caused him to have a bit of a personality shift."

"It releases his inhibitions. Causes him to act any way he wants without any consideration of right or wrong. He basically just acts on his desires – with no fear of consequences." Lana explained in greater detail.

Completely dumbfounded, Lois stared at the two girls. She wasn't sure exactly what she had expected, but that had not been it.


	10. Chapter 10

Lois sat in her living room, her laptop on the coffee table in front of her. Technically, she was supposed to be working on an assignment for her _Ethics and Moral Values in Journalism_ class but she'd mostly just been staring off into space, thinking of the events of the night before.

Lana and Chloe had both taken off right after dropping the red meteor rock bombshell to Lois. Unfortunately, she found that instead of the knowledge satisfying her curiosity, it had aggravated it even more. Chloe's information had made her even more interested in all things Clark. It was like an itch – you think scratching it would make you feel better, but all it did was make you want to scratch it more.

Lois Lane was always fascinated by puzzles – and Clark Kent was the biggest puzzle she'd ever met. And, now that she thought about it, the hottest. Not that it meant anything - it was just a random observation.

Chloe, Lana, and Clark were expected to be at her apartment in about half an hour for a meeting to go over the night's plan. Lois had to keep reminding herself that she needed to focus on catching the killer. She could deal with the whole Clark situation at a later date. A way later date.

A knock on the door snapped Lois out of her reverie. She walked to the entryway and opened the door – only to reveal Clark standing in her hallway – alone. No Chloe and Lana in sight.

"Smallville?" Lois's voice came out a bit squeaky and she quickly cleared her throat. "Weren't Chloe and Lana coming with you?"

Clark smiled nervously. "Actually, they are coming, but I decided to come a bit early. I wanted to talk to you alone."

Lois blinked. Alone? What did that mean? That didn't sound so good. She looked him over and sighed -- back to his usual plaid.

"Can I come in? Or should we just have the conversation out in the hall? Your neighbors might get a kick out of it." Clark teased, a hint of the friendly banter they usually engaged in coming to the surface.

"Oh! Yes, of course." Lois opened the door wider to let him though. "Nice to know that you've gone back to using the front door – and knocking. You know, I'm going to have to pay fifty dollars to get the balcony lock fixed." As soon as the sarcastic remark left her lips, Lois instantly regretted it.

Clark had been smiling, but at her words his smile dropped and in its place was an incredible look of guilt. Lois sighed - why couldn't she just learn to keep her mouth shut?

"I'm sorry about that, Lois. I'll pay for it, of course – ." Clark began.

"No! It's okay." Lois interrupted, holding up her hand. "I'm actually sorry. I was just kidding. I guess it's too soon to joke about that, huh?"

"You have nothing to be sorry about, Lois. I came in here last night and I was rude to you while I was here. I should be apologizing to you – not the other way around."

"It's okay, Smallville." Lois waved away his apology. "Chloe and Lana explained everything to me."

Clark's brows shot up in surprise. "Everything? Uh… what do you mean, they explained everything?"

"They told me about your red meteor allergy. How it makes you act weird." Lois explained, making her way back to the sofa. She sat down cross legged in the corner and looked up at him earnestly. "It's okay, really. I get it – it was like you were drugged."

"Drugged?" Clark echoed, relaxing a bit. For a second he'd been scared that by 'everything' Lois meant _everything_. 

"Now, I had already kind of figured out that you were drugged – I just assumed it was the usual variety. I should have realized that it had to be meteor rock related – you guys are from Smallville after all." Lois s rolled her eyes and smirked a bit. 

Clark looked at her strangely. He knew that Diana had made her lose a bit of her memory, but he had thought that Lois would have at least remembered that she'd made the connection the night before.

"How much, exactly, do you remember from last night, Lois?"

"What do you mean? I remember most of it, I think. Why?" Lois flushed a bit and met Clark's questioning gaze. "Did something happen that you're not telling me?"

"No, no! Nothing like that." Clark shook his head sharply. "I just… well… we exchanged words and I wanted to apologize for what I said. I was out of line. But, if you don't remember what I said, then, well…what's the point in apologizing?" Clark said, teasingly. 

Lois grinned. "Good try, Smallville. I actually do recall certain very insulting words regarding the amount of alcohol I consume and the number of guys I date. Go on – tell me you didn't mean it and I'll be all magnanimous and forgiving about it." Lois waved one hand airily.

Clark sat down at the edge of the arm chair and leaned forward slightly. He shot Lois a crooked smile. "Huh… I see. That's very big of you."

Lois nodded. "I think so."

"But what if I can't tell you that I didn't mean it?"

Lois looked at him with shock. Clark no longer looked like he was joking and she didn't really know how to react to that. This conversation was not going the route she had planned. 

"What do you mean? Are you telling me that you really feel that way about me? And you're not going to apologize?" Lois tried to keep the atmosphere light and joking. "C'mon - are you still wearing the ring or something? Maybe a matching necklace this time?" 

"No, I am going to apologize. I shouldn't have spoken to you that way. It was disrespectful and rude. I'm sorry." Clark stated simply. He sighed and ran a hand through his black hair. "But, I can't lie to you and say that the words didn't come from somewhere. I'm not sure how much Chloe and Lana told you about the red rock and my…well… allergies. But, it's not simply a matter of being drugged. It affects me like a drug, yes. But the choices I make when I'm affected by it are all mine. I'm not completely out of control."

"So, basically, you just act on how you already feel? You just kind of lose the editing process in your head? You just live in the moment?"

"Well, yeah. Kind of – that's one way to look at it."

Lois was silent for a minute. "I don't really know what to say to that. You said some pretty mean things last night, Clark. And now you're telling me you meant them? How can I accept your apology, then? It's not about _how_ you said it – it's about _what_ you said."

"Yeah, I know." Clark said softly.

"So tell me why you feel that way." Lois took a deep breath and willed herself not to get angry. "You've never indicated that you didn't respect me before. I thought we were friends. Kind of."

Clark studied Lois for a moment before answering. "We are friends. Not kind of – I consider you a friend. You think it was easy for me to come in here and tell you the truth? I could have come in here and used the meteor rock as an excuse. I could have told you I didn't mean any of it. The only reason I'm telling you what really happened is because I consider you a friend. A good friend." He paused. "I feel like I owe you that much, at least."

"So the truth is that you think I'm an alcoholic slut? That's not exactly a friend-like thing to say." Lois declared bitterly, losing her battle with her temper.

"No, Lois, that's not the truth. That's not how I feel, at all." Clark exclaimed.

"Then, what are you saying? I'm confused."

Clark hesitated. "The truth is... I'm jealous."

"You're jealous?" Lois stared at him blankly.

"Yes – I've been thinking about everything that happened over the past few days. I had a conversation with…well…I…I realized the stuff I said to you was coming from feelings that I have. Feelings that I don't usually let myself think about." Clark struggled to convey his jumbled thoughts to her.

"Feelings? What kind of feelings?" Lois repeated faintly.

"Feelings of jealousy, of course." Clark said impatiently. This was hard enough and Lois wasn't making it easier.

Lois cleared her throat. "Jealous of what, exactly?"

"Well… of you." Surprised by her question, Clark stared at her. He had thought that she had already figured that part out. "I see the way you go out and just do whatever you want to do. You do what makes you happy. The stuff I was saying last night – I was angry that you came to school here and basically didn't give a damn about what anyone thought."

Lois didn't answer, her mind working through it all. Okay, so maybe she had been thinking something else entirely when he had said he was jealous. He wasn't jealous of the guys she went out with – he was jealous of her. Which made her happy, of course. The last thing she needed was Smallville getting all alpha-male on her.

Clark continued when he didn't get a response from her. "You drink too much if you want to – someone dares you to dance on a table and you do it. Some guy went out and trashed your reputation and you dealt with it in stride." He shook his head and added in admirable tone, "You take no prisoners. Lois. You meet life head on – life doesn't happen to you. Lois Lane happens to life."

Lois took a deep breath and tried not to get too happy and proud at his words. She didn't know why she cared if Clark respected her or not, but she really had to know. Lois had to hear him say that he didn't view her as a screw-up.

"Okay, Smallville, that's not what you said before. Last night, you were saying that all those things were bad. Now, suddenly they're good?"

Clark cleared his throat and fixed his eyes on the carpet. "Yeah, I know. I'm saying that I'm jealous of the fact that you can let go and do all that stuff. I'm not saying that I like that you do it. There's a difference, Lois."

"Why don't you like it?" Lois prodded, her heart starting to beat a little faster at his words. She looked at him and noticed that his hair was a little too long. For a second, her fingers itched to feel his hair … she imagined it would feel soft and silky.

Clark lifted his head right at that moment and caught Lois staring at him with an indefinable expression on her face. He could hear her heart pounding and her breathing was shallow and uneven.

He gazed into her hazel eyes searchingly and considered what would happen if he told her the truth. That he wanted to beat up every guy she went out with. That every time she accepted a dare or threw herself into a challenge, he was torn -- between applauding her courage or covering her up with a million plaid shirts and never letting her out in public. That he didn't know what would have happened if he hadn't taken off the ring last night. That he still couldn't believe that she'd had the power to make him take off the ring with just a few simple words.

No one had been able to make him walk away from red kryptonite willingly before – not his mother, father, Pete or Lana. But with a few words, she had managed to have a more powerful affect on him than kryptonite. The thought amazed him and, at the same time, scared the hell out of him.

When she didn't get an answer, Lois looked at him searchingly and repeated, "Clark, why don't you like it?" 

Clark blinked and decided to go with a quasi-truth. "Because it's beneath you. A lot of the things you do are kind of disrespectful to who you could be. I think you don't give yourself enough credit. You deserve more."

Lois let out the breath she hadn't even known she'd been holding in. She felt a mixture of relief and disappointment course through her body.

"Well, that's really sweet of you, Smallville. If it makes you feel any better, I agree with most of that."

"Most?" Clark raised a brow, with a slight smile.

"Yeah, most. Not all of it, because…well… you are a bit of a prude, you know." Clark laughed. "But, yeah, I'm not exactly proud of a lot decisions that I've made since my senior year of high school….I could have done better. But I am trying to change that. Maybe I don't do things the way you would do it, but I have my reasons – ."

"I know you do, Lois. It's okay, I get it. You don't owe me any explanations. It's not even about that." Clark interrupted, not wanting her to hear why she needed to go out with a different guy every other week. Any guy that wasn't him.

"Look, last night, someone pointed out to me that I didn't put the ring on just because I wanted to help Chloe and Lana. I guess there was a part of me that wanted to put it on because I wanted to be that person." 

"What person?"

"The person I become when I'm affected by the meteor rock – a person who can just jump in and do whatever." Clark shrugged and gave her a rueful grin. "A person that doesn't think too much. So, this morning, I realized a lot of what I said to you last night came from that – the feeling that you can just naturally be like that – and I need a drug to make it happen. So, I took that frustration out on you – I'm sorry." 

"I see – so, basically, what you're saying is that I'm perfect and you wanna be me?" Lois let out a huge laugh. "OK, then, I can live with that. I accept your apology, Smallville. Just, please don't say the word 'sorry' again. I think you've broken your own record. Which is no easy feat."

Clark rolled his eyes. "Well, I don't think I used the word 'perfect' but…okay."

"Right!" Lois nodded brightly and shifted a bit on the sofa.

"Yeah…" Clark voice trailed off as he looked around her brightly lit living room.

An awkward silence stretched between them. Neither one seemed to know where to go from there. It seemed that their friendship was at a cross roads and it was up to one of them to take the next step and determine which direction they were going to take.


	11. Chapter 11

The doorbell chimed, breaking into the silence and Lois jumped up to answer the door.

"Saved by the bell," she mumbled to herself as she swung the door open.

Chloe waltzed in with Lana following close behind. Both carried bags full of Chinese food and ice cream and headed straight for the tiny kitchen.

Clark stood up, moving towards the kitchen to help them set up the food. 

"Clark!" Lana exclaimed, almost dropping the ice cream in shock. "What are you doing here?"

Chloe looked at him suspiciously. "Have you been here all night? Did you come back here after we left?"

"No! I just got here!"

"Hell, no!"

Clark and Lois both yelled out at the same time. 

"Okay." Chloe looked taken aback by their fervent denials. She glanced between the two of them curiously. "What exactly _did_ happen last night? Lois never got around to telling us."

"Nothing happened," Clark assured Chloe and Lana. "We just had an argument and then I left."

"Well, that's not exactly true, Smallville." Lois broke in with a grin.

"Really?" Lana's eyes sparkled as she opened the cupboard to take down plates and glasses. "Do tell – what did Clark do this time? Did he give you one of the infamous Clark Kent apologies?"

Clark glared at Lana and she smiled at him prettily to show she was teasing. 

"Well, let's just say that I got a good glimpse of Smallville's inner desires, people."

Chloe's eyes widened. "What you mean?" She shot Clark a questioning look and he shook his head at her.

Lois sauntered over to Clark, standing really close to him. He swallowed nervously, having no idea where she was going with this. Knowing Lois, she could blurt out anything. And he'd never hear the end of it.

Lana giggled and wrinkled her nose a bit. "Inner desires? Do we even want to know?"

Clark groaned and reminded himself for the umpteenth time that he really needed to get some guy friends. He made a mental note to run down to Central City soon to catch up with Bart. Or maybe he'd invite Bart up to Metropolis. Bart could use a break from med school and Flash duties.

Lois hooked her arm through Clark's and grinned up at him wickedly. "Yup – the red meteor rock showed me exactly what Smallville secretly wants. The thing that he's kept from us all this time."

Lana and Chloe exchanged meaningful glances and Clark looked pained.

"Ahh…Lois…" he started, a hint of warning in his voice.

Lois ignored him and continued as though he hadn't spoken. "So he shows up at my apartment last night – through the balcony of all things." She broke off and turned to him with a raised brow. "Oh yeah, how'd you do that, anyway? You never told me."

Chloe jumped in before Clark could respond. "Forget about that, Lo. Just get on with the story."

"Okay, so well, anywaaay…." Lois stretched it out, enjoying Chloe and Lana's curiosity and the increasing tension in Clark's arm. "Smallville's been holding out on me. He kept these feelings hidden….way….deep down. But now it all came to the surface."

Clark shot her an angry scowl. He couldn't believe that after everything they'd discussed she was just going to turn it into a joke in front of their friends. Did the woman have no concept of tact?

Chloe and Lana were wide eyed and hanging on every word.

Lois squeezed Clark's arm and smirked at him, appearing to be oblivious to his discomfort and anger. "C'mon, Smallville. I want you to admit it. You can't remain in denial of your true feeling forever, you know."

"I don't know, Lois. I think I can." Clark countered, untangling his arm from her and moving a few feet away.

"Ah, exactly what kind of feelings are you talking about?" Chloe looked at her cautiously, hoping against hope that Lois wasn't going to blurt out that she knew Clark was in love with her. Because that would not be good – Chloe would have to listen to Clark complain about it forever.

Up until this point, Chloe had been able to avoid talking to Clark about it because he thought that she and Lana didn't know. If it was out in the open, then Chloe saw many days ahead of her filled with a brooding, annoyed Clark calling her at six in the morning to complain about her cousin. It would be Lana and high school all over again. And Chloe liked sleeping late.

"Maybe its better if you don't tell us?" Chloe suggested, a bit desperately.

Lois ignored her and pressed her lips together in a mock grim expression. "I have to say, it was a shock. I was stunned – but it all kind of made sense in a weird way."

Clark turned to look at her - wait, what was she talking about?

"You were stunned?" Clark asked with a raised brow and confused look. 

Lois nodded thoughtfully, her hazel eyes sparkling with humor. "It's okay, Clark. You don't need to hide it anymore. We're not going to judge you. It's perfectly okay for you to admit, in reality…." Lois paused and then finished dramatically with a flourish, "you actually _hate_ plaid. You secretly want to be a model."

Clark and Lana burst out laughing, while Chloe let out a sigh of relief.

"What? I don't secretly want to be a model!" Clark tried to sound offended – which was hard since he was grinning.

"Well, what else explains that you were under the influence of a drug that released your inhibitions and the first thing you do is grab a black shirt?" Lois grinned back. "You were strutting your stuff, Smallville. Looking pretty good."

Clark flushed a bit, but he still managed to smirk back, "What can I say? If you've got it, you've got it."

"Yeah, maybe you should wear black more often." Lois teased, moving slightly closer to Clark.

"Maybe I should," Clark agreed softly, closing the gap between them some more and staring down into her eyes.

Chloe and Lana's jaws dropped at this exchange. The air was alive with energy as their friends stared at each other, completely forgetting that Chloe and Lana were still in the room.

Lana stared at them and then turned to Chloe, mouthing silently, "What's going on?"

Chloe shrugged and whispered back, "Who knows?"

"Ahem… the food is getting cold." Lana broke in loudly and indicated towards the cartons spread out on the counter.

"Oh!" Lois turned away from Clark and glanced at the food. A uncharacteristic blush crept up her cheeks. "That's right – we should eat, I'm starving. Thank you so much for bringing this. Did you get the egg rolls? They're awesome, aren't they?" Lois babbled.

Chloe looked amused at Lois's efforts to distract everyone from the weird moment that had just occurred. She played along gamely. "Yup, awesome egg rolls. Best in Metropolis."

Clark was about agree when the doorbell rang again. Lois put down her chopsticks and looked towards the door.

"That's odd." Lois frowned. "I wasn't expecting anybody else."

"Oh, I'll get it." Clark headed towards the door. "It's probably Diana."

"Diana? Who's Diana?" Lois asked, perplexed.

"What? What's she doing here?" Chloe exclaimed.

"I invited her – and she's an FBI agent, Lois." Clark explained to both of them, while swinging the door open.

"Hi Diana, c'mon in." Clark ushered her into the apartment.

"Clark. Thanks for arranging this." Diana gave him a small smile and nod.

Lois watched as a beautiful woman in a gorgeously cut suit walked into the room. She was tall, with black hair swept back in a French twist and she wore small, wire rimmed glasses. The severe cut of the black suit did nothing to hide her curves and the white tailored shirt underneath would made an ordinary person look dowdy – but looked positively sexy on this woman.

Lois swallowed the sesame chicken that suddenly seemed to stick in her throat. She looked down at the old jeans and simple t-shirt she was wearing. There was already a stain on her thigh where she'd just dropped some of the sweet and sour sauce.

Lois glanced back at the flawless woman gliding into the living room, an obvious look of disdain on her elegant features as she took in Lois's living room. Lois rolled her eyes – she could tell already that she wasn't going to like Diana. Not one bit.


	12. Chapter 12

Diana looked down at the papers strewn about the coffee table and the open laptop. She picked up one of the top papers to get a closer look at the title.

"Journalistic Sources: To protect or not to protect - that is the question." Diana read out loud and then glanced at Lois.

Lois crossed her arms and glared at Diana. "Excuse me - that was private. Do you make it a habit to walk into other people's homes and go through their stuff?"

Clark, Chloe and Lana exchanged uneasy glances. They all knew who Diana was, but Lois obviously didn't. Clark genuinely hoped that Diana had meant it when she had said she didn't hurt innocent people. 

Rather than being offended, Diana shrugged and smiled a bit. "Sorry, Lois. Occupational hazard." Diana set the paper back down on the coffee table.

Lois frowned and raised a brow. "How do you know my name? Clark hasn't introduced us yet."

Diana looked startled momentarily and then said smoothly, "Clark mentioned your name when he gave me directions. And since I already know those two," she nodded towards Chloe and Lana. "That led me to the obvious conclusion that you must be Lois. I'm Diana Prince – and you're Lois Lane, right? "

"Yes," Lois nodded reluctantly. Damn, the woman was smart. Not just beautiful, but smart. Lois grabbed a napkin and began to rub vigorously at the stain on her jeans.

"So, what is the answer to the question?" Diana asked, gesturing towards the paper.

"Ah… well…." Lois looked at Clark, who wasn't helping with the conversation at all. In fact, he was busy concentrating on filling his plate with a heap of food and wasn't even glancing her way. Chloe and Lana were equally busy with their food. Apparently, she had no choice but to talk to Diana.

Lois shrugged. "My argument is that it's always more important to protect the source. Regardless of who wants the information – it's the journalists' responsibility to uphold the system and respect the confidentiality of the source's identity. That's the ethical thing to do."

"Even if suppressing that source's identity could cause innocent people to get hurt?" Diana asked coolly. "What if there was a person out there that knew information about this serial killer we're trying to find? If he was feeding you information about the killings that could help your story, but would also lead us to find out who the killer was, you'd still keep his identity a secret? Where's the morality in that?"

"I'm not saying the system is perfect, Diana." Lois shot back. "But, it's not our duty to question the system. The morality lies in the balance – we cannot play God. I cannot determine that the hypothetical lives I'm possibly going to save are more important than the actual life of my source. Obviously, I'll do whatever I can to help the investigation – but I won't do anything that would cross the line of journalistic ethics. There are laws that are protecting my source and I won't violate those laws. As a journalist, I have rights and freedom of press - ."

Diana snorted. "Ah, yes, the lovely freedom of press argument. That's all you guys need to whip out, isn't it? Does it really help you sleep at night?"

"Yeah, just little things called the Bill of Rights and the Constitution," Lois said sarcastically and rolled her eyes. "Just little details like that. Us journalists love hiding behind those little details."

"What do you think, Clark? Do you agree with Lois?" Diana turned towards Clark, who had just been about to bite into an egg roll.

"Yeah, Clark." Lois crossed her arms and shot him a challenging look. "What do you think?'

He glanced from one beautiful woman to the other and swallowed nervously. Chloe and Lana scooted their stools back a few inches and watched him squirm with amusement.

Clark sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Actually, I agree with you, Diana." 

"You what!?!" Lois glared at him and then at Diana when she caught a satisfied smile on the woman's face.

"Yeah," Clark said calmly and took a sip of his coke. "I agree with Diana. In fact, that was the argument I used for my paper. I think that, as journalists, we have a responsibility to our source. But we also have a responsibility to what's morally correct. If we know someone that's holding information that could lead to innocent people getting hurt, then we have to make sure that information gets into the right hands. We can't just stand by and let more people get hurt because we're protecting the freedom of press. Because we're putting the story ahead of the lives of innocent people. It's unethical."

"What?" Lois gave him a look of disbelief. "How is that ethical? Who are we to determine when it's okay to reveal a source and when it isn't? What about the lives of the innocent sources? Are they worth less than the others? Who are we to play God and determine that it's okay to reveal a source just in case people will get hurt if we don't? When we know that source will definitely get hurt if we do reveal who they are? The whole system breaks down – there's no morality in that."

"Well, maybe the system needs to change, Lois." Clark said patiently. "That's why my argument is that journalists should stop hiding behind the laws and stop looking at it in such a black and white way. Look, I'm done with the paper, if you want to read it. It explains my argument in detail."

Now, Lois's jaw dropped in surprise and it wasn't because of his opinion. "You're already done? It's not due until Monday!" She still had more than half the paper to write herself.

Clark shrugged and chuckled at the look of dismay on her face. "He gave us the assignment three weeks ago, Lois. Chloe's done, too. She finished last week."

"Yeah, I got some great stuff from Perry." Chloe replied, while spearing a piece of broccoli with her chop stick. 

"What's your argument, Chloe?" Diana asked curiously. 

Chloe glanced at her cousin and best friend. "I'm kind of in-between them, I guess. I think that it's okay for the government to subpoena our sources and prove that they really need it – through legal means, of course. I wouldn't plead the fifth, I don't think. But, I wouldn't just go around revealing the information for no reason and I'd need some assurances that the government would provide protection for my source."

"How can you decide which ones to sell out on and which ones not to sell out on, though?" Lois pointed out and then added accusingly, "When did you finish the paper? You didn't tell me you were done."

Chloe shrugged and rolled her eyes. "Like it matters, Lo. You're still going to get a higher grade than me and Clark. You'll finish it ten minutes before class and still turn in a paper that Prof. Adams will rave about in class."

"That's true." Lana jumped in with a laugh. "Remember last semester - the time Lois forgot the paper was due and she actually wrote the thing the morning of – and still got the highest grade in your class?"

"Don't remind her, Lana. You'll bring back the gloating and I don't think I can take any more of it." Clark groaned, his eyes twinkling with amusement when Lois punched him in the arm in response.

Chloe grinned and turned to Diana. "It's true. She didn't even know the paper was due and figured it out at, like, nine in the morning. The paper was due at 2:00 and Lois worked like crazy from nine to one… the next thing we know, the professor's posting Lois's paper online and telling us all to go read it and learn what a true journalist writes like." Chloe rolled her eyes, but she couldn't stop herself from beaming proudly at her cousin.

Diana smiled at the blonde girl, her respect for Chloe sliding up a notch. Most people would have been envious of their friends in that situation, but she obviously had nothing but love and pride for Lois. 

"Anyway," Lois interjected, starting to feel uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was taking. "Don't we have a mystery to solve? Surely you didn't come here to discuss our class papers with us, Diana?"

Diana blinked a bit at the authority in the younger woman's voice. She studied Lois for a second before responding. "No, I didn't. It was an interesting discussion, though." Diana looked at Clark thoughtfully. "Very enlightening."

"So, we should get on with it, then?" 

"Yes, we should." Diana glanced around the room. "Actually, I should go back down – I left my briefcase downstairs in my car. It has all the files in it."

"I'll get it for you, Diana. I'm done." Clark offered. He looked down at his clean plate sheepishly. "Oh, we got side-tracked by the debate on ethics. We totally forgot to ask. Are you hungry? Please – take some food."

Diana looked at the Chinese food spread across the counter and realized that she was, in fact, starving. Still, she demurred. "Thank you, but I couldn't. I mean, you weren't expecting me and …."

"Don't worry about it, Diana." Clark interrupted with a grin. "We have plenty. Lois eats enough for four people, so we always make sure to order extra. You can just have one of her portions."

Lois gasped and her cheeks burned in embarrassment. "Smallville!"

"Clark Kent!" Lana scolded. "I cannot believe you just said that!"

"What?" Clark cast a genuinely bewildered look at Chloe, Lana and Lois – all glaring at him furiously. He looked at Diana for help, but she was too busy holding back laughter to come to his rescue.

Clark shrugged defensively and looked at Lois, completely confused. "What? We say stuff like that to each other all the time, what's the big deal?"

"The big deal?" Lois yelled. "You just called me a pig – in front of her!" Lois gestured towards the perfect figure of the beautiful woman settling down on the stool across from her. Lois rolled her eyes – Diana even managed to sit on a stool gracefully – how the hell did she accomplish that?

"I did no such thing!" Clark said indignantly. "I did not call you a pig."

"You implied it, Smallville!"

"Smallville?" Diana broke into the argument, while grabbing an egg roll out of a carton. She eyed Clark quizzically. "There's nothing remotely small about you, Clark. Why does she keep calling you that?" 

Clark flushed. "It's where we met. I'm from Smallville, Kansas."

"You're right about that, Diana." Lois's hazel eyes lit up and she smiled mischievously. "There is nothing remotely small about him – big hands… big feet… and big….well…" She cast a speculative look at Clark, who was full on blushing at this point. "Why don't we share the story about how we met, Smallville? Won't that that be fun? I'm sure your friend Diana would love to hear all about how I know there's nothing small about you."

Lois smirked at him, obviously very ready to get back at him for the eating comment. Well, two could play at that game, Clark thought.

"Yeah, I'm sure she'd love that." Clark agreed with a wicked gleam in his eyes. "And, I'm sure she'd love to hear about your time with the Navy, too. I mean, that story is priceless, wouldn't you say? You seemed like such a natural sailor – like you'd been doing it for years. Are you sure you hadn't been taking lessons on the side? I especially thought that the uniform fit you really well. " Clark grinned at Lois, who was speechless at his words.

"Was it comfortable?" 

"Smallville…" Lois said warningly.

"Metropolis…" Clark responded smugly.

The two stared at each other for a moment – one irritated and the other satisfied to have the upper hand for once.


	13. Chapter 13

_Two hours later…  
_  
Four figures intensely poured over the FBI files and photos that Diana had brought with her. Bowls of ice cream were strewn about, forgotten and melting as each person had become more and more absorbed by the project at hand. Diana had brought them up to speed on her investigation and they had explained to Diana what their plan had been.

One person was missing – Lana had gone to Lois's bedroom to take a call from Victor and hadn't emerged since. They suspected it was because she couldn't handle looking at the pictures of the girls. Lois didn't blame her.

"I just don't get it!" Lois threw a pen down on her coffee table in frustration.

Chloe looked up from the laptop she'd been typing into madly, a pencil stuck between her teeth. She removed the pencil and asked, "What don't you get?"

"This… all of it! It's horrible – how could a person do this to another human?" Lois gestured towards the photographs and files that covered her coffee table and carpet.

Diana glanced up from the file she'd been reading. "I know, it's hard to take, isn't it? We've been searching for this guy for so long that I sometimes tune it out. But it is horrific."

"We have to find this guy and stop him." Clark said grimly, rubbing his eyes in a tired manner. He'd only gotten two hours of sleep in over 48 hours and it was beginning to take a toll.

Lois picked up the file on Maddie, studying the picture of the smiling, bubbly girl. It had obviously been taken in high school, since Maddie was wearing a cheerleader uniform and looked younger. She flipped to the next picture and shuddered. It was a shot that had just been taken last week when the body was found. The girl in the picture bore no resemblance to the smiling girl in the previous photo. Lois let out a deep sigh.

"There has to be some connection, people. What are we missing?" Lois declared, setting the file back down. 

"We've gone through these files, Lois. The only connection we could find was that all of these girls are from small towns in Kansas. Every girl was born in that town and lived there until she came to Metropolis to go to college." Diana shook her head and took off her glasses. She pinched the bridge of her nose. "I don't what else there could be. That's it."

"There's gotta be something more, Diana. We're obviously missing a bigger piece of the puzzle here. Tons of girls in Metropolis were born and raised in small towns and go to school here." Lois pointed out. "I mean, look – right here we have both Chloe and Lana that fit that description. What made this maniac choose these four girls specifically? We need to figure that out and then we'll know who he'll choose next."

"Really?" Diana raised a brow, her lips lifted in a half smirk. "That's how it works? Thanks, Lois – because I hadn't thought of that method at all. What would I have done without you?"

"Don't get touchy with me, Princess," Lois shot back. "I'm trying to help you solve an investigation you should have figured out months ago. We're helping you, remember?"

"I remember that the only reason I had to involve a bunch of college kids was because some people couldn't keep their big --."

"Okay, okay, enough!" Clark yelled, raising one hand to signal them to be quiet. "Enough already! This is hard enough without you two going off on each other." The two women stared at him amazement and he continued in a quieter tone. "We need to focus. We have to do this. Diana, stop baiting Lois. And Lois – stop calling Diana 'princess'. Do you have to give a nickname to everybody?"

Lois rolled her eyes. "Her last name is Prince – she acts like she's royalty… c'mon, Smallville, you have to admit the name's begging to be used."

Her blue eyes glinted with amusement at the irony and Diana gave Clark a sardonic grin. "It's fine, Clark. Personally, I prefer 'her royal highness' but I'll take what I can get."

"Okay, you're right. I'll stop calling her that—it's just making her more arrogant." Lois turned to Clark, who was still glaring at her. 

"Chloe," Clark turned to his friend, who was trying not to laugh at the exchange that had just taken place. "Do you have the list that I e-mailed you? Of the guys in the fraternity?" 

"Yeah, that's what I'm working on right now. I'm cross referencing the list against Met U's student records." 

"What is that going to do?" Clark asked.

"It's hopefully going to tell me everything about them – where they went to high school and what they're doing now."

"How many guys are on your list, Clark?" Diana asked, pulling her own laptop closer to her chair.

"Unfortunately, only three." Clark sighed. "When they asked me to join, there were two guys there – Nick and Charlie. And they mentioned a third guy – Rob. They said there are about ten guys in the group and I was replacing one of them."

Diana typed in some notes into the computer. "So, that means we're looking for six more guys – seven if we include Rob. The killer could be any one of them."

"Did they say why they chose you, Smallville?" Lois asked curiously. "Tell us exactly what they said to you."

"Not much." Clark shrugged and looked apologetic. "Honestly, I wasn't paying really paying attention… but they said something like they noticed the change in me and thought that I would fit in well with their group. Something about how college was when everything was different and that's when people really noticed you. When you came into your own and you become you who you're meant to be."

"Smallville, that doesn't make any sense."

"I know – like I said I wasn't paying attention. Look, they kind of struck me as kind of nerdy, okay?" Clark flushed, feeling guilty that the red K had made him screw up such an important part of the plan. When he was on Red K he couldn't really be bothered by most people and these guys had been no exception. He'd been bored by them within two seconds. 

"You thought they were nerdy?" Lois pursed her lips together to stop from laughing. "Smallville, there are so many thing I could say to that. But I won't, because we don't have the time." Lois turned to Chloe. "Remind me to say them all later, okay? It's too good to resist."

Chloe wasn't listening. She was too busy comparing the two files on the guys she'd looked up.

"You guys – according to this, Charlie went to Bakersfield High School and Nick went to Riverside High School." 

"Wait, that sounds familiar." Lois started wading through the files.

Diana straightened. She had the files memorized and didn't need to look at them. "It is familiar – at least one of them. One of the victims was found in Bakersfield. Mona James –she was also born there and went to high school there."

Lois flipped through the files and got a tingling sense in her fingers. Pieces began to connect together in her head, but she still needed to figure things out before the full connection.

"Chloe…" Lois said slowly. "Check to see if anybody named Rob went to Cherry Hills High School… or Bakersfield, Clear Lake or Allensburg." 

Chloe began typing and clicking away searching the data Lois requested while Clark shot her a curious look.

"What are you thinking, Lois?"

"I have an idea…." Lois looked towards Chloe and didn't elaborate any further.

"Jackpot… in a manner of speaking." Chloe rolled her eyes. "Each of those schools had at least one Rob graduate from there – that ended up coming to school here. A total of seven."

"How many Rob's didn't attend those schools?" Lois asked.

Chloe typed something in again. "About 300."

"The Rob we're looking for is one of those seven. He'll be at the party tonight, I'm sure of it." Lois said with conviction.

"Would you mind telling us where you're going with this?" Clark asked, a brow raised in question.

"I think I know." Diana interjected. "Lois is thinking that it's more than one guy involved in the killings. She thinks that there's a connection between where these guys went to high school and where the victims went to high school."

"That's exactly what I'm thinking. I think more than one guy is responsible for this." Lois didn't know whether to be happy that the FBI agent had made the same connection quickly or to be pissed off that Diana wasn't that far behind her.

"Well, that's all well and good, Lois. But I don't see how you're making that leap. We had the best forensic specialists analyze this case. They all judged that it was one man that committed all the acts. And to jump our potential killer list from one to twenty changes the case substantially."

"I'm making that leap because I saw a connection you didn't." Lois said smugly.

"And what is that, exactly?" Diana rolled her eyes. This woman was so annoying – such a little, know-it-all brat.

Lois grinned and cleared off the tabletop, leaving only four files on the surface. She flipped open each one, facing towards Diana. Diana stared down at the smiling, cheerful pictures of the four victims. Each girl looked so full of life and vibrant. None of them had suspected that they'd never live to see their full potential – get married, have kids, even graduate from college. 

Diana's heart broke and she lifted her eyes to Lois. In an effort to contain the emotion in her voice, her tone was harsher than she'd intended. "What exactly am I looking at, Lois? I've seen these files before."

Lois's eyes softened with compassion. "I know you have. I'm sure you have them memorized inside and out by now. I think that's part of the reason you missed it."

"So, what are you seeing, Lois?" Clark asked, leaning forward to analyze the files spread out before them.


End file.
